Useful to the debate on airport viability is the size of local population. From Government 2001 census we have the following approximate figures:
Urban:
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Carlisle 100,000
Newcastle, Gateshead, North and South Tyneside conurbation 800,000
Sunderland 280,000
Durham 87,000
Counties:
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Cumbria 487,000
Northumberland 307,000
County Durham 493,000
Dumfries and Galloway 148,000
Tyne and Wear 1,075,000
I'm not sure why the Tyne and Wear figure is so different from the corresponding conurbation figure.
Although Cumbria is a large county, probably three fifths of its area is uninhabited hills and mountains. Those population centres in south Cumbria (principally Kendal?) would probably go south to Manchester.
On the face of it these numbers are not good for Carlisle's viability, BUT the low cost revolution doesn't necessarily take convenience into account - consider all the out of town airports that Ryanair use - Torp is 50 miles from Oslo, Hann is further from Frankfurt even Stansted is hardly in the centre of London. So, conceivably, the populations of Tyneside and the neighbouring counties to Cumbria could consider using the airport if for instance it was the only one in the region that say Easyjet operated a flight to Barcelona or Majorca or the like - keyed in with an Easyjet/Ryanair coach service like they already do in Rome, Oslo etc, back to the city centres - it might just work.
Carlisle has tried and failed before with scheduled routes but the you don't need to be told that the airline world has changed beyond all recognition in the last 5-8 years.
However, to some