A lot of the controvosy seems to be being generated by consultants, a lot of the initial objections around noise came after a "consultant" started spreading scare stories about the size of aircraft that would use the airport, a patent bit of misdirection as the runway was never going to be long enough to handle them.
It is fair to say that passenger services have been tried and failed before and the competition from rail is huge, as is the competition from a number of larger airports all within 2 hours of Carlisle (OK slightly longer for folk out on the West Coast).
Whilst I do wish them success, I think Aer Arran only has through ticketing with Aer Lingus, so the Dublin connection makes sense, any other routes for connections could be risky.
Interestingly I was in the area today and Kirkbride (an unlicensed field) seemed busier than Carlisle!
Last edited by west lakes; 13th Jun 2012 at 20:20.