Sale raises fears for the future of Gloucestershire Airport
When the sale of Gloucestershire Airport was announced yesterday two questions stood out - how will it impact the site's businesses, and is it the beginning of the end of the airport itself?
Dear readers,
Welcome to Thursday’s edition. We’re saving our briefing notes and picture story we often top our editions with for tomorrow’s full members edition. So you’ll have to put up with a single feature-length article exploring what the news of the sale of Gloucestershire Airport means.
It seems far from certain this will be a simple change of ownership or what assurances either of the two current owners will be able to get from a buyer that it should stay as an airport.
Cheltenham Borough Council and Gloucester City Council, the co-owners, appear to be saying that is their preferred use for the site going forward, but as the article explains there is not a great deal of faith in that happening.
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Fears for the future of Gloucestershire Airport
When the sale of Gloucestershire Airport was announced yesterday by its owners two questions stood out - how will this impact the businesses on the site, and is it the beginning of the end of the airport itself?
By Andrew Merrell.
If you dipped into social media in the last 24 hours channels are liberally peppered with the press release from the local authorities that own Gloucestershire Airport announcing that the site is up for sale.
Anyone who has followed the story of the airport will know its long history as a political football kicked between owners Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council, and the sale will come as no great surprise. To some, even a relief.
Both local authorities did manage to step back – to a degree – and allow the arms-length company, Gloucestershire Airport, to develop and run a site that is now home to numerous private businesses.
But it is also an operation that has lost millions of pounds in the last two financial years and when Karen Taylor resigned as managing director in 2023 after just two years in the role she was the airport’s sixth operations director in five years.
It led one person to comment at the time that the organisation was “unmanageable”.
Hot on the heels of her departure then interim manager Michael Morton found himself having to defend the airport’s financial position to the BBC, stating it was “completely solvent”.
Now the sale of the Staverton site has been announced the question of its future as an airport is back, and it adds to uncertainty for the future of the many businesses who now depend on it for their livelihoods.
Emotions were running high when Raikes approached some of those businesses today. None were prepared to go on the record, but at least one talked at length about his concerns - and they reflected the fears of many.
“On one hand, it is very complicated. Quite a lot of money has been pumped into the airport, but it still owes quite a lot of money still,” he said.
“And if you are asking private investors to come in and take over the business that owes money or has not been making money, if they don’t see a way of making the money they need to make it work they will look at a different plan.
“That plan would be to build houses here instead.”
He added: “Are you going to invest £25 million to £30 million (the asking price via agents Savills) and make maybe a little bit of money back when you can build 3,500 houses here at £300,000-plus a time and make £100,000,000 million or much more?”
The two local authorities have previously considered a sale of the site themselves to do just that.
The current Government’s pro-housebuilding agenda did not help steady the nerves that this option is a real possibility either, said the individual.
“If on the other hand a new owner does keep the site as an airport they will have invested £30 million and want that back within a time frame or maybe 10 years.
“That will likely mean is an increase in landing fees, in fuel duties and rents.
“They are not going to buy the airport and keep it open with the sole aim of making everyone’s life easy, they will still want a return on that investment.”
Gloucestershire Airport may look like relatively sleepy to those driving along the A40 Golden Valley bypass, but at times each year it becomes among the very busiest in the UK in terms of movements and is said to benefit the local economy to the tune of £50 million annually.
Its last published turnover was £5.2 million for the year ending 31 March 2023, up from £4.3 the year before. But it actually recorded a loss of £265,448 and £4.8 million for those same years.
And since 2017 it has borrowed at least £2.25 million in loans from the two authorities.
Part of the frustration for those businesses on the site, said a source Raikes spoke to, came from a feeling they had no voice to affect any plans going forward.
Read more: Has the sale of Gloucestershire Airport hit political turbulence?
Tenants range from flying schools like Heliflights, Staverton Flying School and Clifton Aviation to giants of that sector, Skyborne, which trains pilots for some of the nation’s biggest airlines and has invested millions in its Gloucestershire operation.
And then there are businesses like cargo and passenger handler Weston Aviation, the charity Fly2Help and even offices for major wealth management and FTSE 500 firm St James’s Place.
Another individual Raikes spoke to, who has considerable insight into the site and its operations, said confirming the site’s future was vital.
“There are a number of tenants and operators with considerable investment on site and are hugely dependent on the airport continuing.
“Others are relatively mobile and could potentially relocate at short notice but the majority require the continuation,” said the source.
“There are some hidden issues too. Gama is the ‘new’ resident, but only because it bought emergency helicopter operators, Specialist Aviation Services, when it went into administration a few months ago.
“Babcock International Group has been trying to divest itself of operational aviation for some years and its mission critical services (formerly Bond Air Services) have lost several key contracts of late.
“Skyborne is winning business right, left and centre, but is already creaking at the seams for classroom space, is behind with its flying training and, I’m told, is looking at alternative bases too.
“The airport has withdrawn the grass taxiway that serviced the Jet Age Museum, meaning visitors can no longer fly in to visit the site.”
There were also, he suggested, other issues that “should make for interesting reading during the due diligence of the sale”.
Significant investment has been made in the site in recent years, most notably the £8.5 million resurfacing its runway in 2022.
Even this subject seemed contentious when Raikes spoke to businesses in the course of its conversations – with one questioning the quality of the work.
We didn’t dare ask about the site’s ‘new’ business park, a 15 acre (653,000 sq/m) space on the former third runway created two years ago with money won by GFirst LEP.
When the project was first unveiled there was talk of it creating 1,500 jobs and a spring 2023 opening, but a buyer has yet to be found.
As another business Raikes spoke to said, trying to sound sanguine: “If the business continues, it continues, if it doesn’t, it doesn’t. That’s just how it is.”
To read the joint press release from the local authorities visit our PR Wire channel here.