Lakeland Airways hopes it will be able to fly commercial flights from airport

Lakeland Airways, a relatively new aviation company, looks to put forward a positive case for the re-opening of the airport. 

Chief vision officer, Jon Davies, said "opportunities have been missed" by not re-opening sooner. 

He was responding to Cumbria's Chamber of Commerce concerns that 'the money could be better spent elsewhere'.

Managing director Suzanne Caldwell said: "There's a lot more urgent that would make much more of a difference to Cumbrian businesses that need focusing on. In terms of sorting out challenges of economy, energy prices, labour shortages and the trains,"

READ MORE: Plans for Carlisle's Lake District Airport revealed

"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," she said. 

The founder of Lakeland Airways highlighted one thing he felt has been overlooked is the potential inbound market into Carlisle and Cumbria that would benefit. 

"The primary role of the Chamber of Commerce is to protect and represent its members interests, however, I've been spending a lot of time engaging and networking with many small to medium-sized businesses in and around Carlisle, all of whom are really supportive of my vision and want to see commercial flights operating from and to the airport - they can't and don't understand why the Chamber have taken the stance that they have or indeed why they would choose to come across so negatively about something that there's a real appetite for," Mr Davies said. 

CEO & founder of Lakeland Airways Jon Davies (Image: JD)

With a survey orchestrated by Lakeland Airways of 500 participants, showed that 72 per cent are broadly supportive of the airport running commercially. The survey respondents also chose Dublin, Belfast and London as the ideal destination choices for commercial flights leaving from Carlisle. 

And whilst many may question the environmental aspect of bringing back flights - Mr Davies said sustainable aviation is already being trialled and developed, to which a regional airports would be the first to benefit from the advancements. 

"Take a short flight from Carlisle to Dublin, for example, where you can then connect onto flights over to America. People may have hesitations about having to transfer between flights at airports, but if you travel via car or by train to a nearby airport such as Glasgow or Manchester in order to catch a direct flight, you might find out that it ends up being more expensive and time-consuming once you've factored in the journey time, car-parking, train or taxi fares and possibly even a night at an airport hotel for the evening before you're due to fly, especially if it's an early departure in the next morning.

"There is also talk of HS2 (high-speed rail network) but with HS2, phase one isn't due to open to 2029 and that's only going from London to Birmingham. It'll be even longer before that service reaches Carlisle," he said. 

"There's an opportunity here for job creation and further inward investment for the county. It needs financial backing and the right mindset and willingness to make it happen.

"It's a real opportunity that's missing for the county, and based on the evidence that I've heard and seen, I believe there's real potential here and I'm determined to see Carlisle Airport develop and grow in the long-term future." he said.

READ MORE: 'A lot of reasons for the airport not to work' says business leader