By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
Gloucestershire Airport bosses won’t tell the public why the Staverton airfield has cost taxpayers millions of pounds in recent years despite the site offering “unique” services.
City councillors were given an update this week on the situation of the 350-acre general aviation site, which sees around 66,000 aircraft movements a year.
The site is jointly owned by Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council and is run by Gloucestershire Airport Limited on their behalf. The two councils’ plans to sell the site fell through earlier this year.
And civic chiefs got a chance to quiz airport management last night (Monday, June 29) over the operational loss at the site.
A slide presented to the committee suggests an unaudited loss for the financial year, including depreciation and loan interest, of £2.1m.
It also showed the situation has been improving over the last three years.
Operational losses, excluding non-monetary adjustments, loans and depreciation, in 2024 was £1,333,041, down to £738,030 in 2025 and £489,979 in 2026.
The overview and scrutiny committee meeting was also told how the airport is the busiest in the country for general aviation and has “unique” facilities.
Interim managing director Brian Rawlings said it is “one of the few airfields you can walk in having never flown an aircraft and leave to go off and fly for an airline”.
“I can’t think of another airfield that offers that facility,” he said. “And that is backed up with the various tenants that we have there that offer some extensive flight training that is basically unique.”
But when asked why they can’t make it pay for the taxpayer, airport chiefs refused to answer detailed questions in public – instead they said they would tell civic chiefs away from the public eye.
During the public part of the meeting, head of finance Marian Bidmead said the bottom line figure they are looking at is a £2.1m loss.
Chairman Andrew Gravells (C, Abbeydale) said: “So the actual loss when everything is taken into account is £2.1m?”
Ms Bidmead explained the accounts were unaudited and it could be more or less than £2.1m because they “have fair evaluations on the market rentals to do as well and capitalised interest to take into account on top of that”.
Cllr Gravells asked: “That’s the hit that the City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council are having to take?”
“Correct”, said Ms Bidmead.
Labour Councillor Karen James (Kingsway) said the meeting heard some really great things the airport does and what fantastic training there is on offer.
However, she added: “The bottom line of all of this for me is that it needs to make a profit, or at least not make a loss.
“It is the public of Gloucestershire who are financing that, the residents of Gloucester and Cheltenham.
“What I’d really like to know is, if we are so unique and we’ve got these amazing services, why are we not making them pay?”
Mr Rawlings would not answer this question during the public section of the meeting.
He said: “I think to answer that one we would need to go into a closed session for us to be able to give you a slightly more detailed response to that.”
Later in the meeting, Conservative Stephanie Chambers (Quedgeley Fieldcourt) said the city council is in “dire financial straits” and residents are facing higher fees and charges and reduced services while subsidising a loss-making airport.
“The residents are still supporting the airport,” she said. “Do you make it a really important concept within the business that it is public money which is funding you?
“If this can’t be viable, if you really think it can’t be viable, then would you say the right thing to do is to call it a day?
“Or would you be able to turn it around and be able to give something back to the residents?”
Mr Rawlings said all members of the team are fully aware of what the situation is and they “absolutely” take it seriously.
“We’ve got people there who are very loyal to the airfield, very skilled and for us to be able to turn things around and make it the best airfield it can be, yes, absolutely we can do it. I’m sure we can.”
The committee ultimately voted to exclude the press and public to further discuss airport issues behind closed doors while the chairman voted against.