Cutter fuels exclusively Transpac, and Transpac rents the buildings and tie down spaces from them as well. Atlantic fuels Westwind. I'm in the south hangars, row 22 and the planes on both sides of me go out regularly.
That's what I mean, the field is now almost exclusively dependant on TransPac, for bettter or for worse. The days......prior to the existance of you.....when it was Thunderbird Aviation and their flight test operations (what's now Cutter), the PD was flying 500D/520s, Honeywell was Sperry, and the tower located next to the restaurant, was the heyday. And it's sadly not coming back. Not the airports fault as there's only so much they can do. When we moved from old Glendale to DVT, the south hangars were $77/month (north hangars/ramp didn't exist as such). Been in same hangar 15 row since then.
I went out and did flight training with my dad out there when I was 10. He was trying to buy a plane and there was a 2 year waiting list for a hangar, and every tie down spot was filled. Also, I've heard a few stories. On the flip side, there are a lot more hangars available now, and only a 3 months waiting list.
Go look at the south ramp t-shades and open parking on the south side and east side by PD; or the T-shades mid-ramp northeast of Cutter. They're either mostly derelict planes or empty. The hangars around 13-17 are like a ghost town. And that's not even addressing the west ramp t-shades where more derelicts exist. Sad because there are some nice airplane types located there.
Things were alot different from the 1980s through now there, believe me. I've been there and still am, as well as around the airport scene around the valley. The only one with major growth has been SDL (PHX too, but not including them), and that's due to corporate. IWA to a certain extent, but only due to mission change. Again, none of this is any individual airport's fault, its just that there's only so many slices of aviation pie to go around for the valley's airports, unfortunately.
The restaurant just got new owners, they're getting their liquor license which should help them out quite a bit. I would say the best thing DVT has going for them right now, is the amount of jet traffic they're starting to get. A lot of people don't want to deal with the traffic and prices of Scottsdale, so they're using DVT as an alternative. DVT also has Phoenix PD that flies out of there, and I know Cutter just got a DOD contract, so I think you'll start to see some more military activity there. I'm not trying to be argumentative, this is just what I see from day to day at DVT.
Jet traffic is starting to trickle in here and there, but DVT hasn't yet cranked up enough there; they moreso seem to be overflow for SDL, but that may improve more.
I understand what you see day to day and that's cool. I'm just comparing to what's been in the past 3.5 decades. None of this is DVTs fault, as they're doing what they can to attract business and make the airport viable, and they're woking hard at that. It's moreso the overall state of GA that has been in decline, that they're fighting against. It's a very tough battle.
One of the best restaurants (not necessarily the "airport's" restaurant, but located there) was Anzio's Landing at FFZ on the northeast side of the field. Could taxi right to it. Even with that side of the field as an airpark, they still had to close and move a few miles away. Sucks, as it was a very nice restaurant, as well as good food and dinner service. FFZ is landlocked with no room for expansion and is noise abatement hell, almost as bad as SDL is.
PHX is another one. The north ramp along Air Lane used to be bustling: From 24th street eastward, you had GA hangars and open parking, SRPs hangar, AZ DPS hangar, Ameriflight, Scenic Air Cargo (gone), the Left Seat restaurant, Honeywell/Garrett, and US Customs (now RJ maintenance). That north ramp is practically a ghost town now. Left Seat closed......used to be able to walk from ramp right in, as well as sit upstairs in the open-air observation deck. Sadly, no more. The old FBO row mid-field on the north side, west of the practically-abandoned Lincoln Ragsdale Executive Terminal, is also nearly a ghost town. Cutter and Swift on the south side do well with corporate traffic, but light GA is next to non-existant there.
GYR is nearly fully dependant on Lufthansa for flying operations, and airliner storage for non-flying ops. And it's noise abatement hell too.