From the Carlisle News and Star:
HAULAGE giant Eddie Stobart is to switch its entire operation to Carlisle airport, a move that will result in the city’s Kingmoor Park complex increasing by 17 acres. Kingmoor boss Brian Scowcroft this week sealed a deal to buy Eddie Stobart’s Kingstown Industrial Estate site from Andrew Tinkler, owner of parent company WA Developments. The deal will also push forward plans to transform the airport into an international freight and passenger terminal, which is considered key to the county’s economic future. The Eddie Stobart site, which borders Kingmoor, will give the industrial estate an extra 328,433 sq ft of warehouse space.
Mr Tinkler, chairman of WA Developments and chief executive of Eddie Stobart said: “We are very happy to have concluded the sale of our Kingstown facility to Kingmoor Park Properties. The proceeds from the sale will strengthen our two-year strategy to develop Carlisle Airport into an international freight and passenger terminal and will allow us to re-locate all of our businesses there. The new infrastructure will hopefully serve to attract other businesses into the region. The investment reinforces our commitment to Cumbria, which I believe will massively benefit the local economy. The relocation will tie in with the two-year redevelopment of the airport which is currently underway.”
Kingmoor Park chief executive Tony Goddard said: “The completion of this deal couldn’t be more timely given the recent good news about the Carlisle Northern Development Route (CNDR). We have created a serious amount of jobs at Kingmoor Park because it is an excellent location. The realisation of the CNDR enables us to build on that advantage and develop Kingmoor Park to its fullest extent. Our development land and our new acquisition adjacent to Kingmoor Park East will benefit enormously from a strengthened transport infrastructure. We can also kickstart our hub project for retail, office, restaurant and leisure facilities, which has already received planning permission but needed confirmation of the CNDR.”
Under the deal, Kingmoor Park has bought a 125-year ground lease from WA Developments. The freehold of the site is still owned by Carlisle City Council. Mr Tinkler, who already has an executive jet based at the airport, took over Eddie Stobart Ltd with his business partner William Stobart in 2003.

How close is Blackpool to Carlisle, I am sure it is closer than Manchester, Newcastle or Glasgow

Plus Blackpool has had dealings with freight operations before, i.e Emerald, so why spend copious amounts of money on Carlisle when Blackpool is down the road

According to Michelin, distances from Carlisle city to airports are:
Blackpool 162km 1h46
Glasgow 164km 1h54
Manchester 205km 2h13
Newcastle 96km 1h15

I think CAX dose has potential, if a london flight was to start (hopefully not by someone like eastern withtheir business only prices) it could be marketed as a short break destination owing to its proximity to the lakes and south west scotland. No one is going to fly london to NCL, hire a car drive 60 miles along the A69 to carlisle then a further 20 miles into the lakes for a night in a B&B, but an hour from LGW or LTN might be tempting.

It could at least grow to the size of HUY given the size of catchment, which cant be a bad thing. Freight could pay for the runway and pax facilities.

"KLM:
Daily to Amsterdam."

Wouldn't KL expand into other, more established UK airports long before CAX, if they expand at all?

SEN has been rumoured. Surely BFS, INV, DSA etc would all make more sense than CAX?

NWI-BHD had to be pulled - CAX might be a shorter sector, but is there demand? A London feeder might work if onward connections were also available, but this would really need to be LHR, and I can't see that happening without a 3rd runway at the very least. Compare the WCML with current LON security lines, and I think potential is limited further. Leisure opportunities tend to be south of Carlisle, and therefore more easily accessible by train to Penrith, Oxenholme etc.

If the freight flights mean that the runway upgrade is viable in its own right, then there have to be some routes which might work, but I can't see passenger flights on their own providing much ROI. Besides DUB, would somewhere like SOU work, or are we still looking pretty thin at both ends?

Lets get some sense of perspective here.

1) The runway, navigational facilities and infrastucture at Carlisle are in an extremely piss poor state. To cope with freight on a major scale the runway needs to be rebuilt and lengthened by 300m, not just resurfaced. New Lighting and an ILS would have to be installed, along with refurbishment and expansion of ground handling facilities, and , if you want pax operations, the terminal - a total bill of at least £25m or more.

2) There is insufficiant demand within the local catchment area for any scheduled passenger services from Carlisle, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to work out that despite Newcastle being 60 or so miles away, they'll always offer a better deal to anyone who wishes to travel to London, Europe or beyond.
There is now a reasonable, albeit expensive train service to London, and although quicker, there'd never be the financial justification for a scheduled service to London - even if it was to Heathrow or Gatwick for interline purposes.

All credit for Stobart's new owners for mooting the idea, but I doubt they'd be able to raise or justify the investment to bring the place up to a standard where potential freight or passenger airlines would even look at the place.

Defeatist Nonsense

Nobody has even mentioned Dumfries and surrounding area but there are two families on our row of 6 houses alone that travel regularly to Carlisle/Dumfries.I would travel more by air if there was a choice.

I have no doubt whatsoever that a regular service South would do just fine given half a chance.

I'd probably move there too for a decent flying job.Anybody know of anything? ( Experienced jet Capt.)

Nice idea, shame about reality!
 

There is virtually no chance of Carlisle being developed for freight. It's in entirely the wrong place. Most freight into the UK (and more arrives than leaves) is heading for consumers. Most of them don't live in the Borders/Lake District (only the fortunate few). The UK's freight hubs will always be south rather than north, east rather than west.

CAX as a stop off?
 

Oban is under development at the moment. How about a 2 daily OBN-CAX- London and back? Two new(ish) airports get a London service in one trip! DND-CAX-BRS another? Those sorts of routes could give Carlisle something to build on for starters?:ok:

CAX - Carlisle Plans
 

Cumbrian tourist officials have backed plans that would see a new terminal building and improvements to the runway at Carlisle airport. At present the airport is used by light aircraft and for training flights, but since being bought by Andrew Tinkler, the chairman of Eddie Stobart, the Cumbrian-based haulage firm, plans have been submitted to improve facilities.

The BBC REPORTS that Cumbrian Tourism chairman, Eric Robson, would support any improvements as he said it was vital the region had an international standard airport claiming Cumbria was missing out claiming "Devon and Cornwall have overtaken us with air links to many UK cities".


Last year Ryanair said it would be interested in operating flights from Carlisle as long as the infrastructure, customer base and pricing made it viable.

The Airport is now run/owned By Stobart Air Ltd
who run/own Eddie Stobart (Road Haulage).
Carlisle Airport

Stobart Air Ltd
Carlisle Airport
Carlisle
Cumbria
CA6 4NW

Well it would be unlikely that the local Tourism organisation would be against improving access, and similarly Ryanair are going to make the right sort of noises when approached by the local media.

Still an awful long way to go (and a lot of money to be spent) before we see any thing significant happening.

Carlisle
 

Stobart Air Services, the owners of Carlisle Airport have submitted plans for a £25 million investment including new runway and terminal buildings to commence passenger flights to London, Belfast, Dublin and Amsterdam to start with.
The airport is situated approx 40 mins by road from Keswick and the Northen Lakes and 20 minutes up the M6 to Gretna and the Scotish Boarders.
Is this seen as a good plan or will pax use the facilities at NCL, only 45 minutes drive away?
I think the airport has a great regional future and low cost carriers could see all year round traffic. I could be similar to NQY, EXT, INV if the plan comes off.
Good luck

Eddie Stobarts plan to Convert Carlisle Airport into a passenger and freight hub
 

Seems to be moving the main runway too.......... think that will bring the approach off past the village of Houghton and to the North of Carlisle, and Brampton the other way.

Details here

http://www.carlisleairport.co.uk/documents/Brochure.pdf

Can someone explain why they want to build a new runway and reorientate it by 3.5 degrees instead of just resurfacing the existing one. (the new runway would be of similar length so that can't be the reason). Anyone care to punt a guess as to why.

Possibly as a requirement to getting planning permission, as it will shift the approach paths away from the city to the north and the town Brampton too

Possibly because the bearing strength of the existing runway is insufficient?

Present NDB to 07 goes through or very close to D510?

Easier building a new runway rather than sorting out the current runway for commercial flights?

Don't know why you would the orientation would be changed other than to avoid built up area and negate the environmental impact but the PCN on the existing runway was very low indeed making it unusable for all but the smallest aircraft.