TRAVERSE CITY -- Rising fuel costs and extra flight hours prompted officials from Northwestern Michigan College's aviation program to ask the college board for more gas money, an expense likely to be passed on to students.
Board members on Monday will consider a request by Marguerite Cotto, a vice president at the community college, to increase the aviation program's current $160,000 fuel allotment by $60,000.
The added expense would cover fuel needed to ride out fiscal year 2008 and would be paid for with student flight fees and a per-hour fuel surcharge to students.
"We had under-anticipated the number of good flying days. We are generating more flight hours and that automatically means more gallons of fuel," Cotto said. "Students pay a flight fee per hour flown and a gas surcharge that reflects the market price of the gas. We adjust that based on our ability to purchase bulk gas."
Students currently pay a fuel surcharge between $4.80 and $19.20 per hour depending on the type of aircraft they train on, said Aaron Cook, NMC's aviation director.
The surcharge is based on the difference between the budgeted gas rate and true fuel cost, and how much of the fuel each plane uses per hour.
Aviation fuel costs rose from about 98 cents per gallon in 1998 to the $3.60 a gallon the college paid this spring. Cook believes gas prices and student surcharges likely will go up again with the next purchase.
"Whatever we buy we are probably only going to use about a third of it before the end of the (fiscal) year," he said. "I do anticipate it is going to be $4 a gallon, in that range, and we will have to increase the fuel surcharge, unfortunately."
The gas crunch, though, does have some advantages, Cook said.
"Are people more conscious? Yes. Are they more apt to make sure they are studied up and prepared? Yes," he said. "And that is a good thing for them and us because their time in the airplane is more effective."
Print this story
E-mail this story
