Fuel

What does a gallon really cost? How long until my order is delivered? What's the cheapest way to fuel a Heavy Jet? Everything fuel-related — pricing, ordering, delivery, refueling, and weight.

3.1 Only two fuel types exist

There is no MOGAS, no Diesel, no SAF in OnAir. Every aircraft type uses one or the other.

3.2 Two prices that matter

Every FBO has two prices per fuel type:

The difference is the FBO owner's margin.

3.3 Dealer price — one number per world

The dealer price is the same at every airport within a given world. It never varies by location.

Seed values at world creation

What never changes the dealer price

• The dealer price is a world setting, shared by its airports. Normal purchases do not make it fluctuate, but an administrative change to that setting can change it.
• No seasonal modifier ever changes fuel prices.

• No country tax affects in-game fuel.

3.4 Sell price — rules and caps

Hard limits

System FBO sell prices

System FBO prices are randomised when seeded and can be randomised again during a server data-maintenance operation. They are not reset by the Monday/Friday stock top-ups.

The randomisation uses reference prices 4.13 Cr/gal for 100LL and 3.73 Cr/gal for Jet, multiplied by 1.4, an airport factor from 0.7 to 1.3, a fuel-specific factor from 0.9 to 1.1 and the Size ratio below:

These are generation inputs, not a promise of the price currently available at an airport. Dealer-floor corrections may also apply. Use the current FBO sell price for a flight budget.

3.5 Ordering fuel for your FBO

How delivery works

1. You place the order and are charged immediately.
2. The ordered quantity is held in a "pending delivery" state.
3. At the due date, the periodic server pass moves the pending fuel into live stock. The first order sets that date to +24 h; every addition to a pending delivery pushes the existing date back two hours for the whole lot. A late addition therefore need not wait a new 24 h from its own purchase.

The overflow guard

You cannot over-order: the server ensures that your current stock + already pending + new order does not exceed your tank capacity.

No cancellation

There is no way to cancel a fuel order once placed. You will wait for delivery.

3.6 Weekly resupply of system FBOs

Two scheduled events restock system FBOs:

• Monday ~04:45 UTC
• Friday ~04:45 UTC — the same restock again

The refuel formula

For each system FBO, per fuel type:

Sell prices are not reset by these restocks.

Only system FBOs are restocked. An FBO run by a player holds what its owner puts in it (§3.5).

Planning tip: the next restock is whichever pass comes first, Monday or Friday, and it only refills an FBO that has fallen below half its capacity by then. A busy system FBO can run low in between. Where your operations depend on fuel, your own FBO or a fuel container is the supply you control.

3.7 Refueling an aircraft at an FBO

Refueling at your own FBO

When you refuel your own aircraft at your own FBO, the server charges you dealer price × gallons — not your marked-up sell price. Your markup is only a cost to other players, not to yourself.

Third-party refueling

When another player refuels at your FBO, they pay your sell price. You receive the difference between sell price and dealer price as profit.

Automatic fuel purchases for regular routes and work orders

When a regular route flight is flown by your AI crew (not "Fly in Simulator"), or a work order leg starts, the server buys the fuel automatically at the departure airport:

• It only buys from an FBO that holds the whole amount in one go. An empty or short FBO is skipped.
• It picks your own FBO first, then your VA's, otherwise the cheapest of the FBOs that can supply it.
• If no FBO can supply the whole amount:

- Regular route: nothing is bought. If the fuel already on board can't reach the destination, then the alternate, plus 30 minutes of cruise, the flight doesn't start: it shows as Not started, and the flight's journal gives the reason ("Not enough fuel for this flight…"). - Work order: the leg doesn't start ("No FBO with enough fuel available at …"). The leg option No fuel operation at leg departure lets it start without buying fuel.

For regular routes, fuel purchases are charged to the company operating the aircraft. With Fly in Simulator, prepare the fuel yourself through dispatch.

3.8 Fuel weight (for Weight & Balance)

Fuel weight is a fixed constant per type — no temperature or altitude correction:

3.9 Fuel containers — portable fuel storage

A fuel container is a cargo item that lets you transport gallons between airports.

Buying a container

• Price = gallons × FBO sell price (same as refueling).
• Weight = gallons × fuel density.
• Revenue goes to the FBO owner as a normal fuel sale.
• You specify the number of gallons — there is no fixed container size.

Using a container on an aircraft

• Container must be at the same airport as the aircraft.
• Pumps as much fuel as the aircraft can accept.
• The container is destroyed if fully used; kept (with reduced weight) if partial.

Pouring a container into your FBO tank

• Must be at an airport where you own an FBO.
• Fills your tank up to remaining capacity.
• If the container has more fuel than your tank can hold, the excess stays in the container — nothing is wasted.

Supplying an airport that sells no fuel — no FBO required

Remote strips (a fishing-camp factory site, a bush field, a tiny island runway) often sell no fuel at all. You do not have to build an FBO there to keep flying:

1. Buy a container at any FBO that sells your fuel type — your own, or a third-party FBO with fuel resale enabled.
2. Haul it to the strip like any other cargo.
3. Refuel on the ramp straight from the container — works at any airport, even one with no FBO. Leftover gallons stay in the container for the next visit.

⚠️ Parked containers pay storage. A container sitting on the ground is ordinary cargo: after the 3 h grace period it is billed the cargo storage fee (§2.6) — 0.06 Cr/lbs/h, ≈ 1.44 Cr/lbs/day — unless it fits inside your own FBO's cargo capacity there. Example: a 100-gal avgas container (600 lbs) at an airport with no FBO ≈ 864 Cr/day. A container riding in an aircraft's cargo hold is never billed — it costs payload instead. Unneeded containers can be deleted from the Airport page (My Assets tab); the fuel is lost, no refund.

Rule of thumb: containers are perfect for bring-your-own-fuel trips and short stays. For a permanent base, build an FBO — any open airport qualifies, whatever its Size — with a fuel tank: dealer delivery in +1 day (§3.5), refueling at dealer price (§3.7), and free cargo storage up to your capacity.

3.10 Industrial fuel supply (background system)

Behind the scenes, fuel factories get paid when fuel is supplied to an FBO near them:

• When you order fuel for your FBO (§3.5), and whenever a system FBO is restocked (§3.6), the server buys fuel tanks from player factories within 250 NM of that FBO whose fuel output is set to Local Dealer, nearest first, and pays their owners the local dealer price. It buys up to the quantity supplied: for a restock, the amount refilled, or 10 % of capacity when the FBO was already at or above half. It works in whole tanks of 5,500 gal.
• Factories farther than 250 NM are not used for this.
• None of this changes your order or its price.

The per-NM transport cost (10 Cr per tank for every NM beyond 250 NM) belongs to a different mechanic: a factory whose fuel output is set to FBO Refueling and pipes fuel into an FBO. That cost is paid by the factory owner (see the Industry chapter).

This is an industry economy mechanic; it does not affect what you pay at the pump.

3.11 Skills that affect fuel

No skill changes dealer price, sell price range, ordering lead time, refueling speed, or fuel weight for W&B.

3.12 Edge cases

3.13 TL;DR

• Dealer price is flat per world — no regional variation, no fluctuation.

- Classic: 3.30 Cr (100LL) / 2.98 Cr (Jet-A) per gal - Survival: 3.72 / 3.36 per gal

• Your sell price caps at 20 Cr/gal and must be ≥ dealer price.
• Fuel delivery = +1 day, no fee, no bulk discount.
• System FBOs are checked every Monday + Friday at ~04:45 UTC: only stock below half capacity is refilled; player FBOs are not included.
• Refueling at your own FBO only costs you dealer price — your markup is not self-charged.
• Fuel weight: 6.0 lbs/gal (100LL) · 6.7 lbs/gal (Jet-A).
• Containers pump anywhere — no FBO needed to refuel at a remote strip; a parked container pays cargo storage fees (§2.6), a container in an aircraft's hold doesn't.
• Only the AI Fuel Efficiency skill affects fuel consumption — and only for AI-flown aircraft.