Regulatory Alert: FAA Approves Fleetwide Unleaded Avgas Replacement

The road to this historic milestone has been decades and millions of dollars in the making. With the EPA weighing whether to issue an endangerment finding on leaded fuels, and as political pressure in California and on Capitol Hill has ramped up calling for leaded fuels to be banned, today's announcement provides the GA community with a viable path forward.

The timing for when G100UL will reach airports is still uncertain. GAMI plans to work with refiners and blenders of existing aviation fuels to begin production of the new unleaded fuel and will have to navigate ongoing supply chain constraints and infrastructure challenges. The cost of the G100UL is also undetermined at this time; however, GAMI expects for it to initially be slightly more than leaded avgas. Prices are expected to decline as production is scaled up. Furthermore, there are other 100UL fuels that are in development, and assuming that they are able to obtain an STC, the resulting competition would eventually help bring prices down, as well.

In addition to providing substantial health benefits, GAMI also claims that G100UL will help engines operate more efficiently. This would decrease the need for certain engine maintenance caused by the use of leaded fuels, such as cleaning spark plugs.

AAAE welcomes the FAA's approval of G100UL and will continue to represent the interests of GA airports in the Eliminate Aviation Gasoline Lead Emissions (EAGLE) initiative as we work to understand what types of infrastructure improvements are needed to support widespread use of this and other new fuels.