Yet another planning application:

Carlisle airport application hopes for 200,000 passengers by 2025 and 5 return flights per day

Date Added: 3rd January 2011        

Owners of Carlisle airport, Stobart Group, have put in a planning application
to resurface the runway and build a 394,000sq ft air-freight distribution centre.
It claims this would create the equivalent of 156 full-time jobs and safeguard
73 existing jobs. There would be flights to Southend. The application warns that
the airport is not viable without redevelopment. Stobart say that if they don’t
get their application, they will move outside Cumbria. (News & Star)     Click here to view full story…

Farmer wins appeal to stop Carlisle Airport revamp

19th May 2010      

A Cumbrian farmer has won his legal fight to overturn planning approval for the
£25 million redevelopment of Carlisle Airport. The Court of Appeal has quashed
a decision by Carlisle City Council to allow Stobart Air to build a haulage depot
and create a passenger and freight hub. The city council should have insisted
on a full assessment of the environmental impact. Stobart was granted permission
in December 2009 and is now looking at sites outside Cumbria.   Click here to view full story…

Farmer taking Carlisle Airport fight to appeal court

27th October 2009      

A farmer hoping to scupper plans for a passenger airport on the edge of Carlisle
is to take his fight to the Court of Appeal. Mr Brown objected to the city council’s
2008 decision to grant planning consent to Stobart Group for warehousing and offices,
as there had been no adequate environmental impact assessment, but the case thrown
out by a High Court judge. Now, Mr Brown intends to seek leave to take the case
to the court of appeal. (News & Star)
Click here to view full story…

Judge defers ruling on Carlisle man’s airport challenge

Stobart views straitened times as opportunity

3rd January 2009        

Stobart Group is one of the few businesses that views the current economic uncertainty
as an opportunity rather than a threat to its future. Much of its business is
in transporting food and “people still need to eat”. In December, Stobart bought
Southend. Tinkler sees the area as strategically important, with the 2012 Olympics
coming up. Stbart has an option, expiring this month, to buy Carlisle airport
for about £10m – an announcement is expected shortly. (FT)       Click here to view full story…

Carlisle airport plan “hailed as part of area’s economic future”

 2nd January 2009        

An odd local story, suggesting development of Carlisle airport by the Stobart
group will “safeguard 565 jobs and create 100 more” and this “has been recognised
as a major building block in Cumbria’s economic future.” It also somehow manages
to link growth of the airport with “aims to transform West Cumbria into a major
low-carbon energy production hub for the UK.” (Times and Star)           Click here to view full story…

Airport shrugs off Carlisle revival plan

24th December 2008          

Blackpool Airport says plans to increase passenger numbers will not be affected
by proposals to develop Carlisle Airport. Carlisle City Council’s planning committee
has approved a £19m scheme by Stobart, which includes encouraging more passengers.
A spokeswoman for Blackpool Airport said the growth at Carlisle would not have
an negative impact on the Squires Gate hub. (Gazette)         Click here to view full story…

Carlisle airport plan gets go-ahead

20th December 2008        

Carlisle City Council yesterday gave planning permission to allow Eddie Stobart
and Stobart Rail to move their operations at Kingstown to the airfield at Crosby-on-Eden.
As a condition, Andrew Tinkler will sign a binding agreement to upgrade the runway
and passenger terminal, so scheduled passenger flights could start next year.
Objectors have vowed to fight on and may apply for a judicial review. Tinkler
faces negotiations with a tenant farmer. (News & Star).       Click here to view full story…

Carlisle Airport expansion plan backed by Cumbria council

27th November 2008        

Businessman Andrew Tinkler’s plans for Carlisle Airport have received a boost
from Cumbria County Council. Carlisle City Council will decide next month if the
£20m scheme for an Eddie Stobart HQ and warehousing should get planning consent.
But the county council has to be consulted first – its development control committee
voted 11-0 in favour. However, they say that Stobart Air, should sign a binding
agreement to upgrade the runway and terminal.   (News & Star)       Click here to view full story…

The application details   (07/1127     Full planning application) say:

£25m development plans for Carlisle Airport submitted

17.10.07       http://www.uk-airport-news.info/carlisle-airport-news-171007.htm

Carlisle Airport is poised for take after it submitted plans to Carlisle City Council for a £25m
redevelopment of the airfield. Bosses at the airport are confident that twice-daily
flights to Stansted or Luton will be a reality within two years, with other destinations set to follow soon after.

The plans are for a new runway and a giant building – seven times the size of
a large supermarket – to house a passenger terminal, air traffic control centre,
hangars and warehousing. It would be built to the south of the existing runway
and airport buildings, with access from the A689.

Facilities at the passenger terminal will include a café / bar, car-hire desk
and shop. Other proposals include short and long-stay car parks and equipment
to allow planes to land in bad weather.

Airport director Richard Gordon said: ‘There is scope at Carlisle Airport and
airlines recognise this. We have met two airlines and have a dialogue with another
three. We should be looking at commercial passenger flights in 2009.’ He added
that the development to double the airport’s workforce to 50, rising to 65 within
five years.

Mr Gordon added: ‘Our runway dates from 1941, is shot to hell and carries a weight
restriction. If we rebuilt it we’d have to close the airport and that would affect the flying
schools. So the plan is to have a new runway of roughly the same length, 1,830
metres, on a slightly different alignment.’

‘The new runway will take 30-seat turbo-prop aircraft but not the Boeing 737s
operated by Ryanair or easyJet. We don’t want them anyway because there aren’t
people in the airport’s catchment area to fill them.’

Direct flights to Heathrow and Gatwick have been ruled out because of the cost
and scarcity of landing slots there. But Mr Gordon said flights to Paris or Amsterdam,
which are hub airports with international connections, were a strong possibility.
Dublin has also emerged from market research as a likely destination.

Under the plans, the airport will be renamed as Carlisle Lake District Airport
in an attempt to cash in on tourism traffic. Airport owner, Andrew Tinkler, also
wants to move his haulage firm Eddie Stobart and engineering company WA Developments
to the site, with plans to develop an air freight terminal.

City council planning officers are now studying the airport plans, which include
a detailed environmental impact assessment. Once they are satisfied everything
is in order, the plans will be available at Carlisle Civic Centre for the general
public to inspect

The scheme is being opposed by environmental groups concerned over increased
carbon emissions. The planning application is likely to prove controversial, not
least because the airport is within the buffer zone for Hadrian’s Wall, a World
Heritage Site.

Richard Dyer, aviation spokesperson for Friends of the Earth, questioned the
demand for passenger flights over train journeys. He said: ‘If you are flying
into Stansted or Luton then you are talking about very similar journey times into
the centre of London.’

‘These short flights are immensely damaging in terms of climate change when compared
to travelling by train.’ He added there was also local opposition to the expansion
plan on the grounds of increased noise pollution.