Airport to be sold by April says council leader

A council leader has confirmed it hopes to sell an airport by April "at the latest".

The previous sale of Gloucestershire Airport, which is jointly owned by Gloucester City Council (GCC) and Cheltenham Borough Council, fell through in March after eight months of negotiations.

Final bids for the airport, which is listed with a guide price of £25m through the property agent Savills, will close on 30 September.

Speaking at a city council meeting last week, leader Jeremy Hilton said there had been a "good number of enquiries" about the airport.

The 350 acre site at Staverton is home to around 50 businesses and sees more than 66,000 flights a year.

In April, it was reported the airport filed a £2.1m loss for the previous financial year.

Hilton told the overview and scrutiny committee he had "no idea" who the interested individuals or companies were, but "a few" have signed confidentiality agreements to allow them to review commercially sensitive information related to the site.

"We're hoping to get to a situation where we've confirmed a buyer and sold the airport by the end of this financial year at the latest, but it could well be earlier than that," he added.

"But don't take that as absolute, that's the intention. The issue, as we know, is that when you are selling something you don't always get to sell it on the day you think you're going to sell it – sometimes it takes longer."

Both councils borrowed £7.5m five years ago to invest in improving the airport.

Speaking at the meeting, GCC head of finance, Alison Turner, revealed the airport had failed to make any repayments on the loan since 2022.

Leader of the Conservative group, Stephanie Chambers, asked for more regular financial updates.

"I think quarterly check in with the airport is fine when it's business as usual, but at a critical crisis point I would have said we should be contacting them almost weekly," she said.

Hilton said quarterly updates were "appropriate" and director or place, assets and regeneration, Andrew Hearne, confirmed officers were in weekly contact with airport bosses.

Horizon Aero Group agreed it would buy the airport last summer, but the deal collapsed in March.

The site was relisted in June.

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