NATCHEZ — The runway at the Natchez-Adams County Airport wasn’t very busy on Friday.

And airport manager Clint Pomeroy said for the past few months business has been slowing down at the facility.

“It just seemed to be getting slower around December,” Pomeroy said.

It wasn’t long before Pomeroy’s feelings were confirmed in numbers.

Pomeroy said fuel sales since January and February have been down up to 4,000 gallons per month.

And that’s not good news for the county’s lone airport.

“That’s our biggest revenue source,” Pomeroy said of fuel sales.

To compensate for the loss, overtime for the airport’s eight employees has been cut.

“It’s the first step we can take to save,” Pomeroy said.

Compounding the fuel sale issue, traffic in and out of the airport is also down.

In the last month the airport saw 10 fewer jets than it did in the previous month.

While some of the decrease in traffic can be attributed to foul weather, most is attributed to the national economic downturn, Pomeroy said.

Recreational traffic and corporate traffic are both down, Pomeroy said.

And what’s going on at the Natchez Airport is not unique to Natchez.

President of the Meridian Regional Airport Tom Williams said both traffic and fuel sales are down at his facility also.

Williams said recreational fuel sales and are down “significantly” and jet fuel sales are also down.

Williams said if it were not for one military contract at the airport, the jet fuel sales would be much lower than they are.

“People just are not flying as much,” he said.

Meridian’s airport has also seen a decrease in traffic over the past months.

At the McComb Airport base operations manager Kirby Harvey said the decrease in traffic is not difficult to understand.

“People just aren’t flying as much,” he said. “They’re not spending money if they don’t have to.”

He estimated fuel sales to be down as much as 20 percent over the last month.

And Pomeroy said the slowdown in the aviation industry can be seen even beyond Mississippi.

He said aircraft manufactures across the country have stopped production, in some instances, since corporations and individuals alike are not placing orders for new crafts.

But Pomeroy is hopeful for the future.

He said a jet that filled up Friday afternoon bought 1,300 gallons of fuel before it departed.

“A few more days like that and we could be OK,” he said.