Gloucestershire Airport has appointed Graham Carter in a new role as Head of Business Development. Born in Bredon and living in Tewkesbury, Graham, 38, has a CV which has seen him pioneer aviation projects around the globe, but he's now plotting the coordinates to ensure his home county's £25m aviation hub delivers a new level of success for the region.

Having handled more than 68,000 movements in 2023, flight activity is up at Gloucestershire Airport and the site remains the UK's busiest facility for general aviation (GA). That momentum led to £3.5m in operational income in 2024, to which a boost from its business park revenue saw it land a further £1.2m.

But while GA activity, which includes fixed-wing and helicopter training alongside hobby flyers, has defined the airport and is a cherished part of the Staverton site's heritage, Graham is fully aware of his prime task amid the airport's approaching sale.

With a number of bids for the airport now on the table, a shortlisting process is currently under way which will see a referred bidder emerge. Subject to due diligence, the sale will finally be agreed.

Against the backdrop of a new owner taking over from Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough councils (thereby enabling the authorities to recoup a debt of some £12m they put into refurbishment in 2021) Graham said the prime focus will be on transforming the site's prospects.

But if the airport is to tap into the UK's growth as a home for business jet travel, specific investment will be needed.

Graham said: "We don't have radar as yet, and the investment needed for that technology comes to some £5m to buy it, two years' work to build it, plus a further investment of about £500,000 on training."

Realising that change, however, would open the door to what both Graham and Managing Director Jason Ivey see as a "huge untapped potential" which could unlock considerably more than the current £50m the airport draws to the local economy.

Graham, who began his career at Staverton and went on to pioneer projects in Sierra Leone and Malta, said: "Looking ahead from being run as a council-owned facility, our next step is to make sure our current activity is competitive by looking to new avenues for profit and diversifying our business.

"The growth opportunities are hugely attractive. It's not as if this is a broken ship to put back on course - there is so much scope and, while some challenges present as a firefighting prospect, this is something where we can build and prosper."

Pointing out that there are more celebrities living in Gloucestershire and the Cotswolds than in any other part of England, Jason agrees: "Our location is key, being so close to GCHQ, to Cyber Cheltenham, the M5... if we become desirable to business jet operators, they will seek us out because of this accessibility. Delivering the right facilities and the operators and end users will ensure this become a desirable destination."

Even without the radar and training investment, the airport has already demonstrated its draw for business jet travel with recent flights from and to destinations as far afield as Dubai and Las Vegas, while a pre-customs clearance facility with Shannon airport for America allows passengers to fly onwards to 220 US destinations. But beyond building on any showcase custom of the world's Beckhams and Bezoses, how would the airport specifically build on its potential?

The first moves for this change are already in place: "We have been looking at the longevity of the airport and, initially, this has necessitated putting fees up and better managing our slots and movements," Graham said. "By restricting losses in this way, we ensure we can continue to stay open and work towards a break-even point."

Analysing aircraft movement numbers over the last seven years, 2018 to 2020 showed a flat line of some 10,000 annual business jet related movements, with demand being steady. But since then, the traffic has dropped dramatically to around 6,000 annual recorded movements on traffic above 2.7 tonnes.

He said: "From around £100 per landing, those fees grow exponentially - the heavier the aircraft, the more expensive it is, as it is classed in relation to wear and tear on the runway, requires more fire cover, etc. A larger, six- to eight-tonne landing fee is about £300 per landing, whereas a small GA plane is £20 to land. Yet the reality is that they both take up the same slot, while small craft generate about a sixteenth of the income in terms of the ratio of cost per landing."

He added: "So what do we do – stop all small aircraft and just bring in business jets? Obviously no. Staverton has a heritage which attracts a lot of GA here, while it would be detrimental to all business to not host our hobby flyers and smaller aircraft; they are our bread and butter; they facilitate all the other businesses on the airfield. All of the training aircraft are classed as GA, as well as all our maintenance facilities to support them."

However, he said that with a "hotspot" identified for core GA and training movement between 10am and 2pm each day, the airport now sees the next step of investment being for more staff, more training, more air traffic control cover and consequently broader opening hours, which would facilitate business traffic outside of its 10am to 2pm window.

He said: "Most business travellers want to leave early in the morning so they can go to Europe for a meeting and return that evening. Here, you can't leave until 8.30am and you have to back by 7.30pm, which may leave you with two hours for meetings - it simply doesn't work. An operator is then looking at overnighting a jet, which often more than doubles its cost and becomes hugely more expensive, given parking fees, a second day rate for the crew and their hotels.

"Our aim is to simply fill the gaps outside our 10am to 2pm activity - increase our movements without any safety impact to current restrictions and keep everybody happy. That requires the investment outlined, which in turn requires a new owner who recognises the plan's value beyond the airport's current losses."

Jason added: "So the changes being made now aim to benefit the businesses that work on the airport in six months' time, because when we can see ourselves through this, things will get a lot better. For example, flight schools do night training and, if we were open 6.30am to 10.30pm, they would actually be able to get two rotations of instructors in – and get a lot more training done in the day. Operators have told me how restriction on the amount of training they can deliver is directly proportionate to the profit they can make."

Graham agreed: "Extending the operating hours would be for everybody's benefit. What we would see generally in the evening would be arrivals, when jets create significantly lower sound levels as their engines are idling, while modern jets have whispering technology. In terms of noise, business jets are not flying in the circles which are characteristic of GA training, while the rumble of jet engines would not be an issue - the movement of business jets is about getting them out of here as quickly and quietly as possible. We have established noise-abatement procedures to ensure the best route for departure is followed, with as little disruption to the local area as possible."

If the hours were approved, Jason said it would spell the end of lost business: "One of our operators here has a jet based in Oxford, he lives in Gloucester but is based there because he cannot operate 6.30 to 10.30pm. He is begging to move here. We are competitive on fees, competitive on fuel... we just can't compete operationally – the hours are our Achilles' heel."

Tied up with any new timetable, the addition of radar would also make the airport more viable, said Graham: "Many business jet operators won't currently fly in because we don't have the radar - our GA traffic is going round and round in a circle, so you have to effectively thread the needle with a midsize £30m business jet trying to come in with no situational awareness."

And progress on these issues would also alleviate an HR headache for the airport – staff retention: "For operational staff, the training qualification to use radar would then make us competitive with other airports, so staff would want to stay here. A key issue for staffing is that we have been limited on what we can offer them, while because there is a national shortage or air traffic controllers, they are naturally wanting to go somewhere where they acquire more skills and, ultimately, get paid more. We can't offer that and solve the challenge of staff retention without the investment in the new facilities; without these changes, we are restricted operationally, which inevitably affects our tenants."

Graham added: "Ultimately, it's all here, it's just that next step to realise the potential while keeping money here in the county. More travellers coming here through business jet bookings means more cars hired, more hotel rooms for crew, more people eating and drinking. The spend would be phenomenal and, by opening that door through investment, with us being on the M5, we are actually set to be more accessible for the UK than Oxford and Bristol."

Jason agreed: "To land a business jet at Bristol or Birmingham, because you are contending with scheduled airlines, the fees are significantly higher – they are not wanted there. Making the airport desirable to the business jet operators means they will seek us out because of our accessibility. It's just one step away from blooming into something special."

"And that last step," Graham added, "is the positive investment of new owners coming down the runway."