Carlisle Airport owner Stobart Group has seen a sharp rise in profits.

The infrastructure and support services group made £10.8 million before tax in the six months to August, up from £0.6m in the same period last year.

Underlying profits, which ignore one-off items and give a truer picture of the business' profitability, rose 252 per cent from £4.6m to to £16.2m.

Turnover was 13 per cent higher at £65.3m.

Chief executive Andrew Tinkler said: “Stobart has continued to work towards delivering its clear targets for its three growth divisions – energy, aviation and rail.”

He said that the company was pleased to be working with Irish airline CityJet to add new flights at the group's London Southend Airport.

The deal could add 18 destinations bringing up to 600,000 additional passengers the Essex airport, which is an hour by train from central London.

But there is no mention in the report of Stobart's plans for Carlisle Airport, where it has received the promise of a government subsidy from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund to start scheduled flights to London Southend, Belfast and Dublin.

The group says the EU referendum result has had “a short-term impact” on business development in its aviation division, with some airlines delaying further investment in their UK operations.

But it remains confident that anticipated growth in passenger volumes at Southend remain on track as easyJet and CityJet launch new routes.

Mr Tinkler said that Stobart's energy division, which supplies biomass fuel, was on target to deliver 2m tonnes of biomass annually by 2018.

The period saw Ben Whawell move from being chief financial office to beome chief executive of the energy division. He was replaced by Mark Adams.

Stobart Rail has an order book worth £61m and continues to “cement its position as a leading partner to Network Rail”, Mr Tinkler said.

And the group's property portfolio delivered “significant returns” with the sale of a property in Speke, Liverpool, at a gain since acquisition of £20.7m, a particular highlight.

Stobart sold a majority stake in the Eddie Stobart road haulage business in 2014 but retains a 49 per cent holding, which, it says, continues to trade in line with expectations and ahead of the previous year.

The report says that underlying trading at Eddie Stobart has benefited from strong volumes with existing customers, including the renewal of a contract with Tesco for a another three years.

It adds: “In addition, Eddie Stobart has been successful in securing a number of new contracts with high-profile customers in the retail, consumer and construction sectors.”

Stobart switched to paying quarterly dividends this summer. The first of these, of 3.0p, was paid on October 7 and it anticipates paying further quarterly dividends of 3.0p in January and April subject to board approval.