News: Cash injection boosts hopes for passenger flights from Carlisle

Flights > News > # 1352 (10/07/2007)

£25 million is set to be pumped into Carlisle Airport for new facilities capable of handling regular passenger flights.
Airport operator Stobart Air has revealed plans to build a new runway, a control tower and other facilities, and could eventually offer flights to London, Dublin, Amsterdam and Paris.
A spokesman said there would never be more than about five or six passenger flights in and out each day because there are not enough potential passengers to support more. However, a modernised Carlisle Airport would boost tourism to the Lake District, and give local people an alternative to having to travel to Glasgow, Manchester or Newcastle for flights. Carlisle Airport is located seven miles east of Carlisle and the M6.

Comment:

There clearly is a certain amount of latent demand for flights from Carlisle, but it will be interesting to see just how many of these potential routes can be sustained without subsidy.
It does not look like Carlisle airport intends to develop the facilities needed to offer cheap flights from the mainstream budget airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair, so one of the biggest problems that Carlisle airport might face will be finding airports at the other end which will have the runway capacity to handle inbound flights using the kind of smaller aircraft that we would expect airlines using Carlisle airport to operate.
This is going to be a particular problem at London - at the moment Gatwick airport handles regional flights from Newquay and Plymouth using Dash-300 aircraft, but it would not make much sense to fly from Carlisle to Gatwick, and then head back north to get into London. London City airport might also be geared up to handle the kind of flights that Carlisle airport is proposing, but the airport has much higher handling costs than any other facility in London. Scot Airways successfully operate for flights each day from Dundee to London City, but train services between London and Carlisle are considerably faster and more frequent than they are between London and Dundee.
At least Carlisle airport's operators have only stated moderate ambitions, and do not seem to be planning on a repeat of the EU Jet fiasco, which saw a whole host of new flights launched from Manston airport in Kent, very few of which ever carried more than a handful of passengers. A link with another major European hub such as Amsterdam or Paris would certainly be very useful for onward connections, although attracting KLM or Air France to Carlisle could prove to be tricky.