After a long battle with local authorities and land owners, sleepy Carlisle Airport may finally be set to expand into a UK regional airport with passenger and cargo flights.
The small airport, located to the north of the Lake District National Park, and only a few miles from the border with Scotland, has been a quiet airfield handling mainly general aviation and a few biz jet movements. However, its owners – Stobart Air (part of the freight and logistics group, who also own London Southend Airport) – have been pushing for approval to turn it into a major freight hub linking their trucking operation with air freight.
They also want to open the airport to passenger flights. Recently Aer Arann – operating as Aer Lingus Regional – stated that they would base an ATR42 aircraft at Carlisle to operate daily flights to Dublin and London Southend.
Now, Carlisle City councillors have agreed to a £12.5m investment that will see a 374,000 sq ft distribution hub built at the airport and other improvements to the airport infrastructure.
