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Carlisle Lake District Airport (EGNC) lies on a plain near the River Irthing at Irthington, Cumbria, some six miles north-east of Carlisle city centre. A former Second World War RAF training station turned general aviation and military airfield, it offers two lit hard runways, full refuelling and an on-site café, though prior permission is mandatory for every visiting aircraft.
Carlisle Lake District Airport, ICAO code EGNC, sits on a plain near the River Irthing at Irthington in Cumbria, close to the site of the wartime RAF Crosby-on-Eden. It is now operated by the forest products company A. W. Jenkinson as a general aviation and military airfield, hosting no scheduled commercial services since the COVID-19 pandemic curtailed a brief spell of passenger flights. For the visiting simulator pilot it offers a substantial hard-surfaced runway, uncomplicated approaches over open Cumbrian farmland, and a strong sense of its RAF and civil aviation heritage, not least through the on-site Solway Aviation Museum.
The airfield lies roughly six miles north-east of Carlisle, on flat ground near the River Irthing close to the villages of Irthington and Crosby-on-Eden, and on the line of the old Stanegate Roman road. It sits within the wider Cumbrian countryside away from major controlled airspace, making it a straightforward destination for GA traffic operating in the surrounding uncontrolled airspace of north-west England.
Carlisle Lake District Airport has two paved runways. The main runway, 06/24, is a hard, lit surface measuring 4,488 feet from threshold 06 and 5,178 feet from threshold 24. The secondary runway, 01/19, is also hard and lit, at 2,894 feet from threshold 01 and 2,484 feet from threshold 19. Field elevation is 157 feet, and there is no ILS installed.
Pilots should expect to work the airfield's air/ground service on 123.6 MHz, which also serves as the published approach and tower frequency, with an ATIS broadcast available on 118.425 MHz. There is no ILS and no published instrument approach procedure, so arrivals should plan on visual or basic instrument navigation to the field.
Prior Permission Required (PPR) is mandatory for all aircraft and visitors before operating to or from Carlisle Lake District Airport, and pilots should arrange this in advance of any flight. The airfield operates as an unlicensed general aviation and military field with an air/ground radio service rather than full air traffic control, so standard good airmanship and radio discipline on 123.6 MHz should be observed when joining.
The airfield sits on a plain beside the River Irthing, close to the villages of Irthington and Crosby-on-Eden, and lies along the alignment of the historic Stanegate Roman road, all of which can assist with visual orientation when approaching from the Carlisle area to the south-west.
The airfield began life as RAF Crosby-on-Eden, built to the east of Carlisle on the line of the Stanegate Roman road because the earlier RAF Kingstown site had too short a runway for wartime bombers. It opened in February 1941 and initially housed No. 59 Operational Training Unit, providing day training for Hawker Hurricane pilots. In August 1942 this role passed to No. 9 Operational Training Unit of Coastal Command, training long-range fighter crews on Bristol Beaufort and Beaufighter conversions alongside air firing and night flying work. From August 1944 the station came under 109 Operational Training Unit, a Transport Command unit flying Douglas Dakotas, before being renamed 1383 Transport Conversion Unit in August 1945 and closing in 1947, when the airfield reverted to Carlisle City Council as a municipal airport. Cumberland County Council purchased the site in 1960, renaming it Carlisle Airport and licensing it in 1961 for training and civilian flights to destinations including London, the Channel Islands, Belfast and the Isle of Man; the airport passed to Carlisle City Council in 1968. During the early 1980s the airfield was used by Specialist Flight Training to train military pilots, including Iraqi pilots for the Iran-Iraq War, on Aerospatiale Gazelle helicopters and NDN Firecracker fixed-wing aircraft. Having lost significant sums through the 1980s and early 1990s, the council sold the airport on a 150-year lease to Haughey Airports in 2000; owner Edward Haughey invested in infrastructure before selling on to WA Developments in 2006, after which the site was renamed Stobart Air Ltd and later rebranded Carlisle Lake District Airport. The Stobart Group formally acquired the airport in 2009 and constructed a large freight distribution centre, and in July 2019 a new terminal briefly supported commercial flights to Belfast, Dublin and London before the COVID-19 pandemic ended these services in April 2020. Since 2024 the airfield has been owned and operated by A. W. Jenkinson. The site has also been notable for prehistoric archaeological excavations and is home to the Solway Aviation Museum.
Carlisle Lake District Airport now operates as an unlicensed general aviation and military airfield, hosting several military exercises through the year, without scheduled passenger flights. Avgas 100LL, Jet A-1 and F-34 fuels are available on request to visiting and based aircraft, and the on-site Neaum café provides refreshment for pilots and visitors. Prior Permission Required (PPR) is mandatory for all aircraft. The airfield has recently hosted general aviation fly-ins and was selected as the site for a new HM Coastguard search and rescue base, reflecting its continuing role as an active flying centre in Cumbria.
