Carlisle-3
Join Date: Aug 2014
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It’s not a conspiracy. For some reason a few airports with very low throughput have been excluded and this was always set out in the CAA reports over many years. I’m not sure why the CAA didn’t set about correcting this, unless movements/maximum pax remained under a particular threshold. I don’t know but would be interested to find out the reason
Join Date: May 2002
Location: SW Scotland
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I see my tweet and letter to the local MP triggered an article in the News & Star. Esken's response was bollox to be honest. "short term we plan to re-open for GA aircraft"... then why have they extended the closure during the busiest time for GA??
Join Date: Jul 2002
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There was once a forced closure because Stobart couldn’t recruit ATC staff. I am thinking that they have probably been sacked now so back to square one.
https://www.key.aero/article/carlisle-reopening-delayed
https://www.key.aero/article/carlisle-reopening-delayed
Join Date: May 2002
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There was once a forced closure because Stobart couldn’t recruit ATC staff. I am thinking that they have probably been sacked now so back to square one.
https://www.key.aero/article/carlisle-reopening-delayed
https://www.key.aero/article/carlisle-reopening-delayed
Join Date: Nov 2021
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I recall from somewhere that Liverpool ATC controllers are responsible for providing a remote ATC function for Doncaster arrivals and departures and I think that London City ATC is now provided remotely, so surely Carlisle could operate on the same basis.
Join Date: Jul 2002
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-62757057
Carlisle Airport should 'give up on commercial flights'
Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, which had supported plans to bring them back, has now questioned whether the county needs the service. It felt that the airport was not big enough and flights did not go where people wanted, so the train was a better option.
Slow news day
Yes a slow news day.
But us amateur accountants,aviation enthusiasts (experts), consultants or whatever we call ourselves have been telling these people for years..that this would be the outcome.
Now how much would we have saved the local authorities and investors if they had listened to us in the first place!
A great little GA airport with minimal required facilities ,is and always was the best and only way forward.
But us amateur accountants,aviation enthusiasts (experts), consultants or whatever we call ourselves have been telling these people for years..that this would be the outcome.
Now how much would we have saved the local authorities and investors if they had listened to us in the first place!
A great little GA airport with minimal required facilities ,is and always was the best and only way forward.
Yes a slow news day.
But us amateur accountants,aviation enthusiasts (experts), consultants or whatever we call ourselves have been telling these people for years..that this would be the outcome.
Now how much would we have saved the local authorities and investors if they had listened to us in the first place!
A great little GA airport with minimal required facilities ,is and always was the best and only way forward.
But us amateur accountants,aviation enthusiasts (experts), consultants or whatever we call ourselves have been telling these people for years..that this would be the outcome.
Now how much would we have saved the local authorities and investors if they had listened to us in the first place!
A great little GA airport with minimal required facilities ,is and always was the best and only way forward.
Yes they do - they just do what they usually do and threaten to move out of the county.
From what I saw of how the LM operation was turned round there seemed to be loads of staff. Even when paying a landing fee in a GA a/c there always seeemd to be more Stobart staff than customers. They even used to run you over to the new termainal from the old site if you wanted to use the cafe. Great customer service, but...
Be interesting to see how it compared to some of LM's more remote sites, or an operation like Isle of Scillies Skybus.
From what I saw of how the LM operation was turned round there seemed to be loads of staff. Even when paying a landing fee in a GA a/c there always seeemd to be more Stobart staff than customers. They even used to run you over to the new termainal from the old site if you wanted to use the cafe. Great customer service, but...
Be interesting to see how it compared to some of LM's more remote sites, or an operation like Isle of Scillies Skybus.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: London
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On the flights I took, it all seemed very overstaffed, perhaps like they were using Southend staffing levels for each flight? Clearly, I'm an armchair CEO here, but surely one person on check-in who then handles gate duties, someone handling security, a loader and a dispatcher, were all that were needed for 3 x SAAB flights a day at most?
I still believe a daily KLM flight to AMS would work (yeah, I know AMS has plenty of issues at the moment, but if INV works, CAX would too).
I still believe a daily KLM flight to AMS would work (yeah, I know AMS has plenty of issues at the moment, but if INV works, CAX would too).
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: Godalming
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"I think it just does seem like the time now to say, 'yeah, let's stop flogging a dead horse' and put our efforts and investment elsewhere."
Given the position that this particular individual holds, these comments are very controversial, flippant and unprofessional, in my opinion.
I question the motive(s) and timing of this hit-piece, which appears to me to have been 'planted' solely on one biased mainstream media outlet (BBC) - strange how none of the local newspapers (News & Star) have picked-up on these comments yet - they usually love reporting on an airport story because it's good click-bait for them and almost always causes division amongst readers in the comments sections of their various social media pages.
Of course CAX can't/won't survive solely on commercial flights, but they can, do and will help to bring investment into the city and county as a whole, which is very important considering that tourism is one of, if not, the biggest drivers of income for the region.
The key thing that needs to happen is to maximise revenue-generating opportunities and make better use of the land around the site.
Unfortunately, Esken seem far more focused on SEN as they've made very little effort to get CAX open since Loganair left in mid-2020 - they've just constantly extended the closure period - the latest being until the end of Oct 2022, so nothing is likely to happen until Spring 2023 at the earliest now.
Agreed; I think CAX could potentially sustain twice-daily (morning and evening) flights to DUB in order to take advantage of the connection opportunities over to the USA, and as you suggest, a daily connection into a hub like AMS would help save locals from having to travel across to NCL, down to MAN or up to GLA.
Last edited by jmdavies86; 9th Sep 2022 at 08:34.
Agree with all of this apart from the KLM bit. The Chamber of Commerce piece is certainly very odd. The best thing that could happen to the airport is for Esken to be gone.
A small scale operation focussed on DUB, BHD, IOM would be interesting - maybe with BLK, something nearer to LM's Scottish ops rather than pretending to be a big airport.
A small scale operation focussed on DUB, BHD, IOM would be interesting - maybe with BLK, something nearer to LM's Scottish ops rather than pretending to be a big airport.
Join Date: Feb 2019
Location: Godalming
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Carlisle City Council also share the same view as the Chamber as they're not prepared to put any more public money into the site and I doubt they'll do anything to upset Esken as they're likely sitting comfortably just accepting the lease payment(s) for now.
Esken want to sell it, however their asking price is clearly way too high - seeking >£10m was the last I had heard, but I'm not sure it's worth that in it's current state and/or how one might go about assessing the true market value.
Yes, CAX is in a similar situation that BLK found itself when it closed back in 2014. The local Council stepped in when the leaseholders threw the towel in and the management team have done a great job of attracting GA/private jets over the last few years and are now in a position to consider looking at commercial operations again. They also have an active MP who is campaigning to get flights going again. Lots of local people want Jet2 & Ryanair to return with flights to Portugal and Spain, which might able to happen in the future, but a small scale operation focusing on the destinations that you mention above would certainly be best in the short-term as these could/will also work at CAX.
"Certainly there shouldn't be any more public money going into it anymore, which I don't think there is," she said.
https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/2...ter-elsewhere/
Join Date: Feb 2019
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Well they certainly took their time - interesting to note though that they haven't included the "flogging a dead horse" line.
There was a backlash on social media to her original comments that were published by the BBC last week, and she chose to double-down on them in yet another article published on Cumbria Crack on Wednesday.
This sentence alone aptly demonstrates that she clearly doesn't know what she's talking about, or that someone else has perhaps lent on her and put her up to the job of coming out to say this.
If Esken are/were ultimately hoping to sell CAX on, then they've succeeded in significantly reducing the value of the site by allowing this woman to speak as she has.
To me, this reads that she (well, the Chamber organisation that she purports to represent...!) basically wants someone else to do the hard work and she/they'll try to claim all the credit for making it a success if/when the airport flourishes afterwards.
There was a backlash on social media to her original comments that were published by the BBC last week, and she chose to double-down on them in yet another article published on Cumbria Crack on Wednesday.
"Realistically, people aren't going to get on a plane and go on holiday, they are going to have get on a little plane to go to another airport to transfer. Isn't it easier to travel to Glasgow or Manchester and just get on the plane where you're going to."
If Esken are/were ultimately hoping to sell CAX on, then they've succeeded in significantly reducing the value of the site by allowing this woman to speak as she has.
"If someone's got a plan that will make behind the airport that will work, we're absolutely behind it, we're not anti-airport. We just think there's an awful lot of challenges and lots of reasons for it not to work - it's not the biggest priority,"
