Manchester Airport’s business development manager Gordon Griffiths has taken over as operations director at Gloucestershire Airport in a move that sees him switching from one of the largest airports in the world to one of the smallest in the UK.

Griffiths declares he relishes the challenge of heading up Gloucestershire’s future and building on the heavy investment already made there and the ‘great potential’ for further growth – especially in the corporate jet sector.

The airport already ranks executive flights as one of its core activities and he says he is in

a position to release more land for hangarage and for new, related industries.

Corporate traffic played a key part in a four per cent increase in aircraft movements from April to November compared with the same period last year, and Griffiths claims the rise is a deserved boost for what he describes as ‘the New Gloucestershire Airport’.

“It is recognition by our core corporate and general aviation users of our newly constructed superb facilities, our high standards of customer service and also our keenly competitive pricing policy”, he added.

The airport – which lies at Staverton between Gloucester and Cheltenham – has acquired a new terminal, new hangarage, a new fire station, a new executive lounge and new radar in a multi-million pound investment programme.

In addition, Griffiths says, the three runways are in prime condition, two more private hangars are going up this year for newcomers, and there is ample opportunity for corporate jet users and associated operations to develop new sites there.

“We’re also proud of what we call our chauffeur service for pilots”, said Griffiths. “We don’t just hangar their aircraft and organise refuelling – we park their cars, fix taxis and book hotels, restaurants and entertainment. There’s nothing to match it anywhere else.”

The 49-year-old intends to underpin and expand on existing business, which as well as corporate and general aviation includes a healthy presence of private fliers, military traffic, flying training and engineering.

But at the same time he is keen to encourage passenger flights. Currently the airport has only a summer service to Jersey, but his aim is to use some of his spare capacity by attracting more.

“I’m not talking about becoming another Heathrow but about encouraging the smaller aircraft that can comfortably use our runways”, he said. “Our message to schedule operators is, ‘If you can land and take off here, let’s talk’.”

In the last financial year the airport made a profit of £30,000 on a turnover of £2.1 million for its owners, Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council.

“We more or less broke even”, admits Griffiths. “What I want within the next five years is to be three times busier and to be achieving a return to shareholders of around 12-15 per cent. We’ve done all the major expansion and can claim with justification to be one of the smartest and most modern airports in the country. We’re also one of the most ambitious. From now on I want the need to raise more capital to be the result of an increase in use.”