A decision over who will be the new owner of Gloucestershire Airport will be revealed in June 2025 – with each of the top bidders planning to invest in its future as an aviation hub.
Jeremy Hilton, leader of Gloucester City Council told its annual meeting this May 2025 that the process of finding a buyer for the multi-million-pound site is now reaching its conclusion, according to local democracy reporter Carmelo Garcia.
Co-owners Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council put the airport up for sale in October 2024 with a guide price of £25 million, saying a capital injection was needed to help the aviation hub 'reach the next level', following a period of investment and expansion.
Councillors are to be briefed on the owners' preferred bidder for the airport at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday 26 June 2025.
Jeremy Hilton told the meeting this month that the two top bidders identified in the process were each 'very keen to provide an operational airport and had investment plans for an operational airport into the future'.
Council leaders and officers recently held a full discussion with the preferred bidders at Gloucester Guildhall; and are now in the process of selecting which bid they will recommend to full council.
The council's decision is expected at the June briefing, before the preferred bidder enters into a 12-week period of 'tight negotiations' to buy the airport.
Jeremy Hilton said: 'We are confident it will see the future of the airport continue and aviation will continue and grow there.
'We also seek jobs to be protected and a lot more created in that sector in the future.'
The airport in Staverton is one of the UK's leading centres for aircraft training, is home to a host of aviation businesses and is used for business travel and private aviation, offering two primary tarmac runways and advanced navigation systems.
Between 2021 and 2022, the airport received almost £10 million of capital investment — funded by GFirst LEP, Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough councils — in its runways and associated infrastructure.
