Gloucestershire Airport sale back on the table as options for site weighed up

The airport is costing taxpayers around £2.7m a year and work is underway to reduce its operating costs

Putting Gloucestershire Airport back up for sale is among the options being weighed up by council leaders in Cheltenham and Gloucester. The planned disposal of the 375-acre Staverton airport, which is jointly owned by Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council, collapsed earlier this year following months of negotiations.

The site had been attracting offers in excess of its £25m asking price. However, the deal unravelled after preferred bidder Horizon Aero Group failed to secure the necessary financing when a financial partner pulled out.

The airport is currently costing taxpayers approximately £2.7m every year, and efforts are under way to reduce its running costs. Cheltenham Borough Council leader Rowena Hay regards the airport as one of the most pressing challenges facing her authority, and relaunching the sale process remains her preferred course of action.

“I’m still very firmly of the view that we need to sell,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service. She confirmed that active work is continuing and that they “are going to continue with selling it”.

Gloucester City Council leader Jeremy Hilton stopped short of ruling out a future sale but confirmed that no firm decision has yet been reached between the two shareholders.

“We are discussing options at the moment,” he said. “We will get round to that but we haven’t actually firmed any decision yet between the two shareholders.

“That’s my position at the moment until we make a decision, that’s it. I’m assessing the various details. I’m not ruling anything out at the moment. I have my personal preferences, but I’m not going to declare those at the moment.

“But, we’ve been making [progress]. We’ve appointed a new interim managing director, which I think is a positive move as well. We’re looking at various business options to reduce the operating deficit.”

Originally known as Staverton Airport when it was built in 1936, the site replaced its forerunner at Down Hatherley Airfield. The two councils established Gloucestershire Airport Limited in 1993 to oversee operations at what has since become the UK’s busiest general aviation airport.

It topped the Civil Aviation Authority’s rankings for aircraft movements in 2023. The airport has its own fire station and two business parks covering a combined 700,000 square feet.

Several prominent aviation firms, including Safran Group, Babcock and Weston Aviation, are headquartered at the site.