Out of the 5 principles the Government list which the Public Enquiry will examine, no 4 must be the most relevant:
"If it would contribute to sustainable economic development..."
Additionally, Mr Tinkler's threat to walk away to Cheshire speaks volumes for his true intentions behind the project - In common with Cumbria, the true catchment area of Cheshire is already well served by regional and international airports and has no need for another airport or air freight provider.
Scheduled passenger flights to anywhere from Carlisle are a pipe dream and simply not economically viable and, to my mind, especially in the current economic climate, there is no economic case for Carlisle Airport to be redeveloped.
It is still my opinion that the driving principle behind any development there is to build the business facility first, delay any investment in the airport side for a considerable period of time then postpone it indefinately.
It's a fact that, whilst Carlisle Airport may be very convenient as development site for road freight, there are also other sites in the area which would and could be developed at a similar cost.
I suspect that Stobart got the Airport at a good price, the developer's hoped that they'd be able to get away with non aviation development there without too much scrutiny and they've been caught with their pants down.