Greenville Downtown Airport

[mallguy]

As a Greenville native, and as a frequent traveler into Greenville (sometimes by way of GSP): why in the world does Greenville have a second ancillary airport, and why in the world has it not been redeveloped?

I read on Wikipedia that Greenville Downtown Airport has 385 acres. While the area around it is somewhat degraded, it's in a close-in location that is large enough that, if redeveloped, could result in a major transformation of Greenville. A second downtown could be built there, or perhaps higher-income residential areas could be built as well resulting in a major shot in the arm to Haywood, Pleasantburg and Laurens Roads, negating the need for further suburban sprawl for a while.

GSP has a long runway and plenty of capacity. It could easily fit plenty of non-airline flights.

What am I missing?

[ausrutherford]

The municipal airport is the busiest in the State! It is only for small private/commercial aircraft.

It itself is a huge economic piece for the city.

[mallguy]

Greenville Downtown Airport was probably one of the busiest commercial airports in the state before GSP opened, but the decision was still made to move scheduled airline flights elsewhere, and if GMU operations were moved to GSP, GSP would be keep almost all of the advantages and benefits that GMU has. I don't doubt that it is productive for what it does, but it seems to me that since GSP is so close in anyhow, and since it seems to have so much excess capacity, operations at both airports could be combined at GSP, freeing up a large amount of land for other uses. No economic benefits wuld be lost, and many would be gained.

[vicupstate]

Why even consider losing an ancilliary airport that is successful, when there are 1,100 close-in acres at Verdae that are still decades away from complete development. Coverting GMU to other uses would just create a competitor to not only Verdae but also Haywood Road and Pleasantburg and to some extent, DT.

Spartanburg didn't close it's downtown airport either, and I think it does well too. Most big cities have an ancillary airport, so being a smaller city with one is a plus IMO.