Pax flights from Carslisle?? I would have thought that would have quite a limited catchment area. Blackpool, and to greater extent Newcastle aren't that far away.
I would imagine that freight might have some viability in it from there, as long as there is a link up with the road fleet. Problem being, back in the day when I was a novice artic driver, there was no minimum wage, but Stobart drivers were amongst the poorest paid in the industry. Since Eddie himself stepped down I don't know what T&C's are like now, but if they are still in a similar vain, then what are pilots going to get???
As for obeying rules, again under the reign of King Eddie, but I did hear a rumour about some of his drivers and managers falling foul of drivers hours regs in the early 90's.
To be fair, a lot of the negativity against Stobart in the haulage industry (including my comments here) come from the totalitarian rule of Eddie himself. For instance, he noticed one day that he was sending loaded artics into Scotland, and they were all coming back empty. So he then approached business in Scotland and offered to drag whatever they wanted as far as Carslisle for free. It cost him sod all extra as he still had the running costs of the vehicle, wages etc empty or full. On the back of this a lot of small hauliers in Scotland went to the wall, and industry up there was then paying half the haulage fee they were paying, and Stobart cleaned up. And a lot of reputable hauliers went bang. Good people that were trying to earn a butty, as the only way to get rich in haulage is to get out of it!
I cannot pass comment on the new management, but it has to be said that a leopard doesn't change it's spots, it might find a new cave to live in, but the spots stay the same. It would be interesting to hear from someone with a greater knowledge of the current Stobart operation that I have.
To sum up, the idea makes sense in a business way, but what are the mechanics of it, or is it just a way to gain cheap publicity???