TheLocalYokel

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Gloucestershire Airport has been mentioned in another forum and I thought I would have a look at what it offers. The following is the beginning of its blurb on its website.

Gloucestershire Airport, lying in the heart of the Cotswolds directly between Cheltenham and Gloucester is just 3 minutes from the M5/A40 junction. Serving a catchment area of 1.5m people and 3500 businesses from the Midlands to north Bristol, it is one of the smartest General Aviation airports in the country.

Commercially, the Airport caters for both business and leisure, with Scheduled Services to the Isle of Man, Belfast City and Jersey, operated by Manx2.com, using an environmentally friendly, 19-seater turboprop.

Additionally, 10 companies at the Airport offer specialist charter and management services for both fixed wing and helicopters ranging from 6-19 seats. This is a rapidly expanding market offering point to point, niche services, which are a cost effective, viable alternative to scheduled services from major airports saving that most precious of business commodities, time.

The Airport is home to around 160 based aircraft, ranging from single-seat, homebuilt ultralights to multimillion dollar, state-of-the art Executive Jets. Over 85 000 flights are handled each year, making Gloucestershire Airport one of the busiest in the UK.


http://www.gloucestershireairport.co.uk/

I've often passed close to this airport when travelling between Bristol and Birmingham on the M5 and have thought how well it is sited in terms of access.

Its limited runway length restricts use to corporate jets and turbo props but it is well situated in an affluent part of the country with wealthy people living in considerable numbers in the Cotswolds that are on its doorstep. Furthermore, the Gloucester and Cheltenham urban areas are both close to the airport, providing business passengers, and the outer edges of the Bristol and Birmingham conurbations are not that far away, especially the areas around the large business area of North Bristol. It's probably quicker to get to GLO along the M5 from there than it is to cross the city to reach BRS.

When Manx2 began flying to the Isle of Man a couple of years ago it soon spelt the end for the Eastern Airways service from Bristol to the Isle of Man.

I hadn't realised quite how busy GLO is in terms of movements. The 85,000 flights handled each year are more than the 60,000 air transport movements from BRS, albeit total movements at BRS with its corporate jets, flying schools and private flyers is greater.

The hassle-free experience of small airports such as GLO must be an attraction, especially to regular business travellers, and I can see scope for considerable expansion of scheduled services.
 
By all accounts the Manx2 service there is very popular, presumably because of it's proximity to the motorway. The runway length is only 1,420 metres but it should be able to handle similar types of aircraft as that seen at London City.

Here's the airports website FAQ...

http://www.gloucestershireairport.co.uk/FAQ.php
 
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[textarea]Busy traffic keeps airport flying high

Oficial Civil Aviation Authority statistics have revealed that Gloucestershire Airport at Staverton was amongst the busiest in the UK during 2011.

The airport appears 13th in the list of 64 UK commercial airports, handling 66,715 flights during the year, just pipping Bristol and beating other major regional airports such as Newcastle and Belfast.

Head of Operations Darren Lewington said: "The figures are very encouraging. All those airports above us in the list are major 24-hour operators handling airliners with hundreds of passengers aboard.

"The majority of our aircraft are light and training aircraft, with a small number of business and scheduled flights, such as our daily services to the Isle of Man.[/textarea]

Full report at http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... story.html

It continues to be a very busy airport for all sorts of general aviation types.
 
I passed Gloucestershire last Sunday on the way to the Forest of Dean and there were several light aircraft flying in the immediate vicinity. Also quite a large passenger helicopter (looked like an EC-155) lifted off from the far side of the airport as we were going along the A40.

There are excellent views over the airfield from the A40 (although you can't stop to look). The hangars and offices cover a very large area and block some of the view, but I saw two EC-135 helicopters parked up near a Piaggio Avanti on the way there. One of them was bright yellow so I assume it was an air ambulance or something similar.

The Avanti wasn't there on the way back (Friday), but the helicopters were still there, and a couple of Citations were parked up further along. Surprisingly, I didn't see any aircraft in the sky on the return journey, although I can see how Gloucestershire beats many larger airports in the movements department.
 
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It's certainly a very useful facility and if, say, Plymouth had a runway of GLO's length PLH would probably not have been closed.

Whether there is scope to offer more commercial operations with perhaps 50-70 seater aircraft remains to be seen. No doubt the airport could cope operationally and the combined populations of Gloucester and Cheltenham plus nearby smaller towns ought to provide a decent reservoir of potential passengers.
 
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Good to see that Gloucestershire Airport got in on the European Champions League Final in Cardiff last weekend.

 
Has anyone heard if any carrier will pick up the Manx2 (Citywings) operation from Gloucestershire ?
 
Probably not. It wasn't a PSO route. Eastern Airways took up most of their routes but not that one.
 
Has anyone heard if any carrier will pick up the Manx2 (Citywings) operation from Gloucestershire ?
Probably not. It wasn't a PSO route. Eastern Airways took up most of their routes but not that one.
I haven't heard either.

Ironically about seven or eight years ago (maybe back a bit further than that) when Manx2 began Gloucester-IOM the fares and frequencies quickly made the daily Eastern flight between BRS and IOM redundant as many passengers drove 'up' the M5 to take advantage. Eastern then axed the BRS-IOM route.

It's never had a daily schedule since. Flybe tried BRS-IOM at 3/4 weekly for a couple of years before easyJet tried it at the surprisingly high total (for an Airbus on the route) of 4 x weekly year-round. They now operate just Friday and Sunday year-round which seems to work for them with average loads easily (no pun) into three figures.

So there would be scope for a more frequent service from GLO albeit they would struggle to compete with easyJet at weekends.
 
I would be a shame if GLO looses its scheduled links, Manx2 put them back on the map, and seemingly did well, they should be congratulated for making a go of it, such a pity.
 
Investment in facilities at Gloucestershire Airport.

Gloucestershire Airport touches down with first-class makeover
By Sarah Wood | 5th December 2018
Visitors to Gloucestershire Airport will be greeted with a modern new-look main reception, arrivals area, departures lounge and breakout spaces, following a three-month refurbishment project by Gloucester-based Cobus.
17285_photo-2018-06-12-07-38-50_3_2.jpg

Work underway at Gloucestershire Airport
The airport asked the interior specialists to completely refresh the ground floor of the terminal building, to create a more aesthetically pleasing area to encourage more private jet users.
Lloyd Coldrick, managing director of Cobus, said: "Gloucestershire Airport is well-known as being the gateway to the South West, so we wanted to make sure passengers' first and last experiences of Gloucestershire were memorable.
"Our team of experts worked to create a modern, high-quality corporate environment which saw an overhaul of the arrivals area, departures lounge, security scanning area, main reception, waiting areas, washrooms, the pilots' restroom and breakout spaces.
"Despite the challenges of keeping disruption to a minimum in the terminal, the client was very pleased with the end result and we hope it will help the airport to continue to grow and prosper."
17272_gloucestershire_airport.jpg
 
The first of 5 BA B747 has landed today for storage. I wonder if any thing else will go into storage there. I don't know how much aircraft parking there is at the airport.
 
The first of 5 BA B747 has landed today for storage. I wonder if any thing else will go into storage there. I don't know how much aircraft parking there is at the airport.
Those aircraft have gone to Kemble in the Cotswolds.
 
They have moved Kemble then as tv this evening had film of the 747 at Gloucester airport. The reason they there could be storage till room at Kemble to receive them for scrapping.
 
They have moved Kemble then as tv this evening had film of the 747 at Gloucester airport. The reason they there could be storage till room at Kemble to receive them for scrapping.
I think they've just mentioned the wrong airport or something. Not even sure if GLO could handle an aircraft of that size!
 
I think they've just mentioned the wrong airport or something. Not even sure if GLO could handle an aircraft of that size!
How do they get around pictures. They have a longer runway than BRS and I think CWL.
 
How do they get around pictures. They have a longer runway than BRS and I think CWL.
Gloucester Airport (GLO) at Staverton has a runway length of 1431 metres and Cotswold Airport at Kemble 2009 metres. BRS is 2011 metres and CWL 2,354 metres (according to the CWL master plan - I thought it was slightly longer than that).

Could a 747, even an empty one, land on a 1431 metre runway?

Addendum (2035 16.4.20)

The width of the 1431 metre long runway at GLO is only 37 metres which seems to suggest a 747 could not land even if the length was sufficient.
 
Just for fun, and to alleviate current endless boredom I ran the numbers for a 747-400 to land on GLO runway 09.

On a standard day at 200T weight with maximum braking you can stop in 1129m!

Might have a bit of trouble with the taxiways after though :(
 
Just for fun, and to alleviate current endless boredom I ran the numbers for a 747-400 to land on GLO runway 09.

On a standard day at 200T weight with maximum braking you can stop in 1129m!

Might have a bit of trouble with the taxiways after though :(
With all the runway figures then Kemble had to be the runway used.. The report was on local BBC news. Looks like sloppy news report,they not had lessons from the news paper lot have they.
 

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