GSP International

[gman430]

10 hours ago, apaladin said:

I have recently renewed my license by mail. It is good for 8 years. Across the license it says "Not For Federal Identification". I assume I can still get on a domestic flight until 2020 with this new license? FYI I have a trip next month.  Thanks for any insight. 

Yes you can. You will not need Real ID until October 1st, 2020 to fly domestically due to South Carolina getting an extension. 

Edited September 7, 2018 by gman430

[gman430]

1. New Air Service: Both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Carr received positive feedback at the JumpStart Conference that they attended in June. They received good news from American Airlines and there was indication that American Airlines will begin mainline service in either late 2018 or early 2019. They also had good discussion with Air Canada who invited them both back to Montreal to discuss potential service sometime in 2019. Mr. Carr further noted a positive meeting with United Airlines. They have added flights to Houston and have been up gauging. While United Airlines has been experiencing some resource challenges, they have also added daily flights to Dulles.

 

 

2. New shuttle service from economy lot: https://www.gspairport.com/pages/news-and-community/detail/article/c0/a67/

 

3. This project includes the design and construction of a new combined public parking and rental car ready/return garage. The design team is led by LS3P and design is scheduled to be completed in February 2019. Bidding is planned for spring 2019 and construction start would follow in summer 2019.

 

4. For July 2018, passenger traffic was strong with an 8.7% increase over the same month in 2017. Cargo numbers for July 2018 were up 22.6% for the same period. Passenger load factors were up at an average of 87.5%.

 

Edited September 7, 2018 by gman430

[vistatiger]

Shuttles from the economy lot. Long Overdue. Better late than never I guess.

[motonenterprises]

First Frontier flight lands tomorrow at 11am.

[apaladin]

On 9/7/2018 at 11:21 AM, gman430 said:

Yes you can. You will not need Real ID until October 1st, 2020 to fly domestically due to South Carolina getting an extension. 

Thanks gman. I appreciate it. 

Edited September 11, 2018 by apaladin

[distortedlogic]

On 9/7/2018 at 1:42 PM, gman430 said:

1. New Air Service: Both Mr. Edwards and Mr. Carr received positive feedback at the JumpStart Conference that they attended in June. They received good news from American Airlines and there was indication that American Airlines will begin mainline service in either late 2018 or early 2019. They also had good discussion with Air Canada who invited them both back to Montreal to discuss potential service sometime in 2019. Mr. Carr further noted a positive meeting with United Airlines. They have added flights to Houston and have been up gauging. While United Airlines has been experiencing some resource challenges, they have also added daily flights to Dulles.

 

What is meant by "mainline service", and what destinations would this be for?

Edit: NM just looked it up- it would be AA rather than a regional partner aircraft. So no new destinations I guess, just an "upgrade " in aircraft, maybe larger ones.

For the United flights that have been added, this is just talking about in general, no flights have been added at GSP, correct?

Lots of good news from GSP recently, good growth going on. And while not on the same level as CHS' s 20% growth in July, 8.7% is nothing to sneeze at, especially considering most of the new routes are just now starting. Looks like maybe 2.5 mm next year, and if more new service begins, we could see close to 3mm by 2021 or 2022?

Edited September 8, 2018 by distortedlogic

[sptgguy]

Flew in and out over the past week....both flights (Delta) were filled. The morning flight out was at 5:45 and the airport was busy....was a bit quieter when I landed today at 11AM but it is Sunday.  GSP is doing a great job and I am excited to see it continue to grow. 

[rssgvegas]

On 9/8/2018 at 2:39 PM, distortedlogic said:

What is meant by "mainline service", and what destinations would this be for?

Edit: NM just looked it up- it would be AA rather than a regional partner aircraft. So no new destinations I guess, just an "upgrade " in aircraft, maybe larger ones.

For the United flights that have been added, this is just talking about in general, no flights have been added at GSP, correct?

Lots of good news from GSP recently, good growth going on. And while not on the same level as CHS' s 20% growth in July, 8.7% is nothing to sneeze at, especially considering most of the new routes are just now starting. Looks like maybe 2.5 mm next year, and if more new service begins, we could see close to 3mm by 2021 or 2022?

AA has been running mainline to DFW since last year.  United hasn't added any new destinations, but they have upped their frequency to IAD to 4 a day.  They've also upgauged some routes now running 2 EMB-175's to IAH each day, 1 of the 3 EWR flights is also an EMB-175, while 3 of the 4 IAD flights are now CRJ-700's.

[distortedlogic]

Thanks for the info, so larger planes and increased seats. Good stuff.

[distortedlogic]

BTW, on page 4 of the report it mentions that there was some discussion with the board about the new upcoming airline "Moxy" (subsidiary of JetBlue) that is set to start sometime in 2020 that will focus on secondary markets. Doesn't give any detail about the discussion, but I imagine there is interest, from GSP' s part at least, in the new airline. That will be an interesting development to watch over the next couple years. Sounds like Air Canada is a good possibility as well. Additionally, it says the board asked questions about SW and David Edwards discussed it's hub (ATL) setup. Perhaps they were asking about wanting some additional SW routes again ?  If all this keeps up we may reach that 4MM mark relatively soon and have to expand the terminal sooner than expected. 

Also, sounds like the new master plan should be released late Oct or early Nov, that should be a very interesting read.

Edited September 10, 2018 by distortedlogic

[GvilleSC]

I hope AA increases their plane sizes to DCA. Flights are always full (typically overbooked) and therefore rather expensive. 

[PuppiesandKittens]

I see that GSP is getting an "Escape Lounge", free to AmEx Platinum cardholders but otherwise fee-based.  I had never heard of one, but it's a chain and seems to get very good reviews on TripAdvisor and Yelp, so I'm optimistic.

http://www.escapelounges.com/escape-lounges/greenville-spartanburg-lounge/

I've been stuck at GSP so many times due to small planes' relatively high cancellation rates that I may well use this.

Edited September 24, 2018 by PuppiesandKittens

[gman430]

Blue is my favorite color.  The Boston Red Sox rule also. 

Edited September 24, 2018 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

17 minutes ago, gman430 said:

Blue is my favorite color.  The Boston Red Sox rule also. 

 Last I read Blue wasn't too interested in colorizing one of our gates. Change of heart?

[jarvismj]

On 9/24/2018 at 2:50 AM, gman430 said:

Blue is my favorite color.  The Boston Red Sox rule also. 

Dude you're killing me here... 

[gman430]

GSP received an additional $6.3 million through the Federal Aviation Admin FAA’s Airport Improvement Program. The grant will be used to expand an apron for the airport’s recently announced cargo facilities that are scheduled to open in the spring of 2019. The FAA received 450 requests for funding and GSP is one of 37 airports selected for a grant. Kevin Howell,  GSP senior vice president and chief operating officer, attended the FAA’s announcement in Washington.

[distortedlogic]

Well it's been a month since Frontier started flights, anyone heard anything about how well it's doing?  

BTW, just checked the GSP site and they updated August numbers. Another very good month of growth, up 12.5% from last August, which had some extra visitors for the eclipse. A total 208,700 passengers last month, compared to 185,431 last year (which was up 8.6% from the year before) and this is before several new flights started in Sept.

Year to date (through August)  traffic has increased 7.95%, or 109, 046 more passengers, to 1,476,637. Last year Sept saw 175k, so I would expect a big jump this Sept with new AA and Frontier routes.

Edited October 11, 2018 by distortedlogic

[Exile]

Last month we had a bunch of horses fly through for the Equestrian games. I wonder if there was a matching human traffic bump. There were comments in the CLT forum that people headed for Tryon would deplane there. And I suppose Asheville might have gotten some of that traffic.

But on top of Frontier and AA additions. Potentially a pretty sizable month.

[gman430]

I have been noticing a lot more advertising from GSP with Frontier lately from billboards to tv commercials to contests like this one: https://www.gspairport.com/frontierflyaway/

[apaladin]

Speaking of Frontier, has anyone flown with them? If so, how was it? 

 

[distortedlogic]

28 minutes ago, apaladin said:

Speaking of Frontier, has anyone flown with them? If so, how was it? 

 

I've flown a couple of times with them, not from GSP, but from ATL to CA. I've had good experiences with them. You cannot beat the prices- I took a family of four nonstop to CA for a total of $813! That included paying for one checked bag each way and $50 to sign up for the special "den" membership which saved a couple hundred dollars. They charge for "carry ons", but that is only if you're using the overhead bins. Every passenger gets a free "personal item" , aka carry on, as long as it fits under the seat in front of you; think laptop, medium backpack, large camera bag, etc. You have to pay for their snacks, but you can bring as many with you as you want. You can pay to pick your seat, but I have never done that and they seated us together. But even if you wanted to pay for all that it's still way cheaper.  Planes hold about 175, pretty good leg room, no problems for me. I'm a fan. I also receive their emails and they are constantly running sales and last minute deals with huge discounts on already low fares. 

Edited October 13, 2018 by distortedlogic

[distortedlogic]

AVL  continues to grow rapidly, just announced they are getting 2 daily flights to Dulles. I would imagine this would pull a few would be passengers from GSP. That gives AVL 15 destinations, almost as many as GSP. I know AVL is a pretty big tourist destination but it's not THAT big. Looks like it may we'll pass CAE this year or next in terms of passenger numbers.

[gman430]

Charleston just landed nonstop flights to London via British Airways. Wow. I’m still surprised GSP doesn’t have nonstop via Lufthansa to Germany.  I guess it’s because Charlotte already does. 

Edited October 18, 2018 by gman430

[vicupstate]

1 hour ago, gman430 said:

Charleston just landed nonstop flights to London via British Airways. Wow. I’m still surprised GSP doesn’t have nonstop via Lufthansa to Germany.  I guess it’s because Charlotte already does. 

WOW!   I remember when Charlotte got their first London flight. 

[distortedlogic]

That's  a big deal, the first scheduled European flight for the state. GSP is growing; CHS is exploding. 

I wouldn't be too surprised to see a Paris and maybe even a Mexico flight to follow soon.