Great interview and credit to Jason for taking the questions. Ultimately it will be in the new owners hands as to how GA is valued.

Excellent interview. Well done to Jason for submitting himself to this quite direct questioning! Thank you for sharing your skills as a presenter and interviewer on behalf of GA.

As someone outside of the aviation community I thought the responses to the questions were pretty good, honest and open compared to many of the MD/CEOs I've experienced!

Nice video John. My home airfield Halfpenny Green has just had a new restaurant. Please come and have a look when you have the time!

Jon knows how to ask the key questions!

Jason, have a word with Rob Cooke at Shoreham. He'll explain how to work around loss of rated ATCOs

Jon ty I am based at EGBJ and really enjoy life there as a GA pilot. Great interview and information that has not been given to us yet.

GA airports should have a combination of private & public sector investment. To be entirely reliant on public funding is a danger.

Thanks for covering this, your videos are top notch. Plan to go to Gloucestershire airport this summer but i'll just avoid those 10 days.

Excellent, well-framed questions, and robust, reassuring responses which, I think, inspire confidence in the airfield's future. Thank you for setting up and sharing this.

Top job, well done for covering and 'plugging' the information gap and reducing the resulting anxiety that has been created. It's the Airports and the CAA's job to clarify and communicate such detail in an ideal world (you know, that one where the UK is 'the best Country in the World for GA' . . .

Speaking as a GA pilot who has also worked in Operations Management at an airport, it’s a really hard balance to strike, many smaller airfields are stuck with ridiculous covenants that don’t permit any non-aviation business, and fields have been let go over the years to the point where you cannot bring in biz jets etc. when you combine this with the fact that generally a raise in landing fees kicks off world war three with visitors, and resident aircraft don’t normally pay landings anyway: where are you left? An airfield with limited ability to raise funds, a community who (rightly) don’t want to pay through the nose, and ridiculous land covenants that stop you raising many funds through alternate revenue streams. Add the ridiculous levels of fees that are expected of GA airfields from the CAA and you have a perfect storm to kill GA in the UK.

Fantastic interview and huge kudos to Jason for being so frank and open like that.

Amazingly good video, with some direct, open and honest questions (and fair play to Jason for answering as openly as his planning approach can allow). I note, from some 'google research', that the whole sale itself is a little contentious (from reporting on full council meeting and oversight), and I keep my fingers crossed that, whoever buys it, is open to a similar interview from you to get down to the nitty gritty of the future. Brilliant stuff, thanks very much for sharing, hope you and the family are well!

Thanks Jon for this interview, thanks Jason for taking the questions. Invaluable content. I'm also based at GLO in an Arrow.

Thanks Jon and as well Jason for this interview, l am now thoroughly cognizant of some of the crucial things happening at EGBJ Airport. in all aspects..

Great interview! Any interview that includes the most uncomfortable questions is always a sign of a good interview. The worst type is when the host keeps it too light. Unfortunately, we don't have great representation among the government, which is always controlling and making it difficult for GA pilots in the UK.

Hi John Paul in Orpington hope you are well very good video your questions were well thought out and well done for Jason for answering them in a professional way . He was honest in his delivery

Fantisic interview John thank you .

Excellent interview Jon. I'm glad you picked up on Jason's background being at airfields that haven't been exactly light aircraft friendly. I do wonder what he means by GA - PA28/C172s or the private jets... It sounds like there's still a fair bit for the owners, Jason and his Senior Leadership Team to figure out. In the mean time, I'd better get Gloucestershire Airport in the logbook!

Great video, thanks for covering this John. I did all my training at Gloucester and continue to fly out of there. I've been concerned with the future of the airport since hearing about the sale so it's interesting to hear from the MD

Watched you after seeing you visit Elstree! Hope you had a good fun at the aerodrome.

Thank you John I love your content 👍🏻👍🏻

Very fond of EGBJ at that's where I did my training. It is busy, but that was a good learning experience. Hope it gets back to its best!

Interesting and I Think Jason Was Very Kind to Sit Down And Let You Grill Him🙂

Jon, your channel is a fantastic resource. I am already a monthly subscriber at £4.95, but wanted to send an additional one time "thanks!" payment to better reflect the value you provide to the community. Keep up the great work.

Did some work there a few years ago. Got a private tour of the museum 🙂 Friendly people, some of whom have left now. I think one of Val Doonicans old planes is on the dump there.

I've always had a soft spot for Gloucester if only because they gave me an "Excellent/Excellent" on my QXC. I really hope it survives.

I used to visit Gloucester airport in the 1980's and photograph the Intra Airways Dakota's flying in from Jersey. Used to have good airshows as well.

They need to be careful who they sell it too, you only have to look a Plymouth where Sutton Harbour holdings were given a 110 year lease by Plymouth City Council. SHH then threw in the towel on Air Southwest, closed the airport and have tried for the last 13 years to build houses on the site.

I think if we are all honest as ga pilots paying £20-£30 to land then parking at anywhere between £10 -£30 overnight is just so cheap that the economics just don’t add up! So I’m guessing here but if a single air traffic controller at Gloucester is getting paid £50k a year and there is 10 of them that’s £500k per year just in wages on air traffic control, then you have airfield maintenance, training, certification, rent etc on top. He mentioned 68k movements so again if 50% of that is GA and each pays £30 for landing that’s only just over a million in revenue! Maths don’t stack up - simples! I am a GA pilot but even I am shocked at how cheap it is to land and park at these airports whilst dropping my wife off at Manchester airport in my car costs over £5 for 10 mins! Simple solution is charge more to us ga pilots, if we pay are way then they stay open!

As Chairman of the Airport Committee in the 80's and 90's I know how hard we had to fight, with support from local businesses to avoid the site from becoming Staverton industrial/housing estate. As recently as the 00's the preference was for a reduced site with a single runway. Council ownership in the U.K. has always been contentious compared to U.S.A., France and Spain where the 'invisible' earnings from attracting businesses to the area are considered. I thought the interview was well balanced and can only wish the A.D. good luck in his position between a rock and a hard thing.

Here’s a radical thought, how about if you want to visit, you look at the published 10 days that are restricted… then plan to visit on a different day. Not rocket science

All very interesting, but light aircraft (like I fly) are not financially significant to an airfield like this...and too many pilots complain about £30 landing fees! You can't have it both ways.

It’s a great go to airport for me and one I visit regularly. It would be a shame to see it deteriorate, but the challenges are real and the GA community must realise that, to keep these and many other airports operating and viable, we as a community must pay our way.

Any operations ran by “local authorities” can be relied on to fail when the access to funding becomes harder.

First of all, great video! keep up the incredible work! You earnt a sub! But, I would disagree with you on this, Gloucestershire isn't as busy as some other airfields in the uk with a lot less! It can easily manage with Unicom, It is in quiet airspace, with not a lot around.

Looks like a brownfield site. If the freeholder is a local authority the asset would have to be put to best use on behalf of the general public. Adjacent land uses suggest eventual future if the housing shortage is to be continue.. Restrictive covenants can be set aside by mutual agreement.

A couple of weeks ago on a busy Saturday morning I heard an india victor and wondered if it was you. But maybe not because this seems like very recent information, recent rumours have been about it closing at the weekends and this ten days thing is new

All the closures are notamed so people can plan around the restrictions. As far as I can see some closures are only 1700 until 1830 and approach and tower are combined.

Once again, you managed to squeeze out all the answers that the viewers were asking Jon. You show your skills as an interviewer to gain the respect of your 'target' but also to listen and respond to what he had to say, formulating new questions on the fly, based on what he has said. That is not an easy task as the rapidly diminishing quality of BBC output is testament to. So many interviews seem to be pre-scripted questions and a rushed format that doesn't allow the interviewer to really listen as they rush through. So you need to be praised for your skills. And I will assume you set up the camera equipment too as I have noticed your home setup is of a similar highly professional standard...so let's not underestimate that. In short, as high a quality interview as we could possibly expect from any source. And it isn't the first time I have found cause to tell you that either 🙂. Long may it last .

i solo'd there 2008, sad to hear its been ran into the ground

GA fees will triple. Its not rocket science. These things never end well…..

Many years ago I owned and flew a plane based at Staverton. There were simple procedures for leaving and arriving when ATC was closed. At the time, many felt the issues were due do the airport management so, it would be a good idea to get off the record briefings from Staverton businesses to see what they really see as the key issues. I recall significant investment in buildings that seemed OTT to airport users, Fundamentally, Staverton's location limits its growth. Flying training is a core business. Maintenance could grow, jets might grow but it's still 100+ miles to London. Finally, how are all these growth plans justified in terms of limiting carbon-related emissions?

In terms of maximising aviation-related revenues, it's limited by geography and by runway length - a wet runway landing distance of just 1,147m on RWY 27 significantly limits any charter/public transport potential for turbine business aviation (or anything commercial/scheduled for that matter), whilst competing airports with say Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Oxford and indeed Kemble in each direction, mean if you live closer to any of those, you'll choose those and they don't have the same field-performance constraints. It has run at an average of about 4-5 business aircraft flights a day over the last year and hasn't been far from that for many years - a small increase in that isn't going to pay the bills. It needs to retain pre-existing flight training activity as primary priority and help that to grow, then retain and grow the maintenance activity as the core revenue streams. Otherwise, the only way out of the financial hole is to maximise property development anywhere that's possible whilst safeguarding the two remaining runways. Or, you could just keep RWY 09/27 and get rid of 04/22 which will save costs and open up some more elbowroom for further property development. It could never survive on aviation-related revenues alone and will only grow with additional property rental revenues where unfortunately a lot of the property on the airport is not owned by the airport - it just sees minimal ground rents on some of that. ATC costs will be the most significant burden by far when you put up the pie-chart of what it costs to run a bigger GA airport. Any new buyer will have to forensically review what Tewkesbury Borough Council will allow on the property side in the decades to come, the covenants, the boundaries, greenbelt protections, national planning policy changes anticipated with any new government etc. - nothing to do with aviation at all.

If you want a story, check out what's happening at Llanbedr airfield in Wales.

10 days this year I may not be able to fly there for a bacon sandwich??? Outrageous!

Privatization that sets up a situation where providing less services means more profit for the operator leads to less services. It's unfortunate that the local councils don't see operating an airport for their constituents as something valuable and thus worth them continuing to handle. (I'll be clear that I'm an American and don't have a clear view of the distinctions on what aspect of government handles what services in the UK system - it's exceptionally difficult to explain the American approach(es) so I infer it would be complex in your case.) Also interesting as an American that it's common here to have airports with part-time tower operations that shift to "pilot controlled" or non-towered operations during the hours the tower is closed, but that for this airport, that would be a significant regulatory shift. I hope this current manager's assurances of the future of GA at this busy airport (and it continuing to be an airport!) prove true in the coming years.

For a non flying aviation enthusiast, I found that extremely interesting. Clearly the councils are after money. Is this similar to what happened at Doncaster ?

Direct result of Council finances being squeezed. It is probably the case that running airports isn't Council core business and its a valuable asset, but revenue hungry. If you work there and know there will be a time of upheavel and you have skills which other airports want (and where there is a shortage) it does make sense to move on.

Why not incentivise working in Air Traffic at Gloucester by offering an Ab Initio scheme in partnership with Global who are based on site. I Imagine that many would be willing to take a pay cut or bear the risk if they are offered the chance to gain their license for free or through salary sacrifice.

I’m not sure Jason is being totally transparent. He called Southend, London Southend and Oxford, London Oxford, both of which are desperate to grab the London name to do a Farnborough, which means grabbing massive chunks of airspace allowing the owners to sell for a short term, one off massive payout. Fortunately after Oxfords failure to grab a ridiculous amount of airspace, it would appear the authorities realise they were duped by Farnborough and unwilling to fall into the same trap. I wonder just how profitable Southend and Oxford are right now. Neither have a huge amount of custom, yet VFR traffic outside looks into their clear airspace while they have to dodge the fog of gliders, ultralights, GA aircraft and paraglides forced into VFR channels nearby. I hope Gloucesters new owners don’t have Oxford or Southend’s aspiration’s.

It should kept as an aerodrome.

It is difficult to make money out of a GA airfield. It would not surprise me if the organisation that buys it only agrees to do so if some kind of Armageddon clause is written into the contract. This will then allow them to redevelop the land should the airfield become financially non-viable. This is exactly what happened at Plymouth where it has been closed and unavailable for over a decade while the leaseholder argues with the planners to be allowed to redevelop it after 'proving' that it was no longer viable as an airport.

John, please drop me a line as I think my team could help.

An interesting and laudable effort, but count how many times the MD says " moving fowards" ( or " movin' forwards), which like the use of, So, Look, and Going Fowards, are in the PR speak lexicon just the art of saying very little. I suggest the Glos situation is best being " kept under review".

I'd guess they're selling it because it is a liability and they need the money to pay for all the 'new' people they need to house in the area...

The unfortunate thing about GA is most owners like to have the showpiece owning an aircraft but really don't like counting the pennies off to the airfield and maintenance guys who earn far less than your average car maintenance organisation per hour with out any accountability attached. Aviation is in a serious decline and has been for a long time now. There is more time consumed in the paperwork than the actual maintenance these days. It should be the other way around as the paperwork is safe in the file.

The same people who whine about a 30 quid landing fee happily pay 300 quid for a peak time round of golf.

can i get a discount code for easy ppl??? :) - love the content

Downward spiral incoming, outside investment, rent/other prices up, training prices up, training schools move etc etc

Will there be a case for remote atc like London City ? Will there be a local radio service available for visiting GA aircraft ? Why can't you have a RAF training academy for ATC here ?

The wonderful powers that be closed the road bridge adjacent to Gloucestershire airport, for a whole year, for bridge repairs. They could probably have built a new bridge in half that time. This closure completely blocked all airport traffic coming from one direction, leaving just one other road to access the airport. Then, in their infinite wisdom, they decided that the only other access road to the airport really needed to be narrowed, right then, to allow a huge new 2-lane cycle path to be installed alongside. By the way, before being narrowed, the existing road already had its own cycle lane marked out. Anyway, this decision to upgrade the existing cycle lane right at that time resulted in that one remaining access road to the airport being reduced to a single lane, with temporary (ha!) traffic light- control, for another year, while the 2 or 3 workers allocated to the project, on that critical access route, slowly and thoughtfully plodded their way along, stopping frequently to admire their work, stroke their chins, and make way for passing snails. The resulting narrowed road, with it's glistening new green 10-foot wide cycle lane, adjoining double pedestrian lane, and its fancy white custom demarcation kerbs (£££) dividing the two, now has neither cycles or airport traffic! We won't even bother detailing the fiasco of the junction at the end of that same road, by the Hare and Hounds pub, where they caused additional costs and months of delays by installing, with the same impeccable timing, a Swindon - style double roundabout, (more temporary traffic lights ... many more), only to afterwards realise what a disaster it was, and hastily return it to its original fixed traffic lights, under the cover of darkness to hide the red faces. Even the least-gifted can easily imagine the hugely negative impact all this would have had on airport business. The slightly more gifted, being paid for their supposed ability to look ahead, should definitely have been able to. Bridge work, yes. All the rest, on the only other access, at the same time, for so long??? So, to those responsible for the years of traffic pollution from the thousands of cars stuck at your temporary traffic lights, and your white elephant roundabout scheme, and the untold loss of revenue to the airport and nearby businesses, please get on your pedal bikes, ride down your huge new green cycle lane (you'll have it all to yourselves) and just keep right on going!

Glad it’s up for sale as a going concern. Why should the LA continue to subsidise rich men and their flying machines.

He seems to use ‘training pilots’ and ‘general aviation’ interchangeably, as if that’s the sole reason for GA to exist.

Good interview with someone who probably won't be in his job for long. Lack of ATC and staffing cover is due to mismanagement

3 months before skilled controller is operational ready???? That sounds like bureaucratic madness! Does anybody has any details what is the actual process?

wiff of bs in the air…

What he wants is the kerosene-burners cuz they generate the greatest revenues

All his ither stuff i remember as a bIoody mess

This bloke gives me absolutely no confidence whatsoever. ‘Hopefully’, ‘Hand on heart’, ‘With a fair wind’ ?? Totally unconvincing!

Do air traffic controllers have notice periods? How about this : to avoid shutdowns when ATCOs move, they need to provide X months notice before their final day. This allows the airport to find and train another ATCO in the meantime. Other industries do this all the time, it’s written in contracts. What X actually is, work it out based on CAA and operator training constraints

Good video but seems a bit combative. There’s a fine line between holding people to account, and being belligerent. They are clearly working in a really difficult situation.

Why does absence of ATC limit operations at all?! In Australia, we run light aircraft, business jets, and scheduled airline operations with Boeing 737s in places like Ballina, Ayeres Rock and Mildura with no ATC at all. You don’t even have to call ahead first. CTAF procedures work. You don’t need a tower or an air-ground at every airport. Pilots are perfectly capable of coordinating among themselves to not hit each other. Even Class D airports with control towers revert to CTAF and Class G after hours and on some public holidays. It’s very strange to me to hear that it’s a problem in England specifically if tower controllers don’t show up for work. Completely optional: Y’all could easily choose to not have this problem.

Busy? Did my PPL in Van Nuys ,LA...ranked 25th worldwide.UK is a sad joke,nothing works.

No ATC, heaven

How the heII did this chap get to run an airfield I wouldn't trust him with turning burgers in mcDs

Mismanagement for sure I could fix it in a month so could most housewives

GA could and should, feature strongly in any plan moving forward....right up to the point when the most attractive deal with a new owner, requires them to turn the airport into another Farnborough or Biggin Hill.....when rents on the airfield go through the roof and training companies and smaller concerns are forced out. Its a dangerous time I would say. Corporate interests and biz-jets will call the shots if that is where the money stream is and airspace and CAA regs permit more of those lucrative movements. Fees will no doubt increase to cover the cost of staff increases and improvements to the infrastucture and any new owner will only be looking towards running a profitable and ultimately expanding business. We see little evidence historically that GA plays much of a part in that and so often is squeezed out by commercial pressures. Great that you got that interview and very good questions and persistence, but I felt I was watching an interview with a politician rather than a man passionate about a community of pilots.....🫤

I think if we are all honest as ga pilots paying £20-£30 to land then parking at anywhere between £10 -£30 overnight is just so cheap that the economics just don’t add up! So I’m guessing here but if a single air traffic controller at Gloucester is getting paid £50k a year and there is 10 of them that’s £500k per year just in wages on air traffic control, then you have airfield maintenance, training, certification, rent etc on top. He mentioned 68k movements so again if 50% of that is GA and each pays £30 for landing that’s only just over a million in revenue! Maths don’t stack up - simples! I am a GA pilot but even I am shocked at how cheap it is to land and park at these airports whilst dropping my wife off at Manchester airport in my car costs over £5 for 10 mins!

This bloke gives me absolutely no confidence whatsoever. ‘Hopefully’, ‘Hand on heart’, ‘With a fair wind’ ?? Totally unconvincing!