GSP International

[jarvismj]

My dad and I talked about it last night, and the thing with GSP is that there is 80% load on the flights there, and if the airlines are making money, there is no motivation from Delta to lower fares, or any other airline. Airlines serve a purpose to make shareholders money, that is it, so why would they walk away from the jackpot that is GSP?

[gvillenative]

Ok I see your point, if they are making so much money here why don't they add routes and make more? Just a thought.

[distortedlogic]

Ok I see your point, if they are making so much money here why don't they add routes and make more? Just a thought.

Exactly. If it's such a jackpot, why miss out on all the opportunity profitt additional flights and routes would bring right? And even more, if it is such a jackpot, wouldn't other airlines be fighting to get in there? Maybe it's not really that much of a jackpot.

[jarvismj]

Honestly, if I understood the airline industry, I'd be making a lot more money. Why did JetBlue say that they were going to expand out of 16 new cities this year and if anything, they've scaled back out of Logan? Why is the brand new Terminal A at Logan, which was built just for Delta, why are they scaling back massively, and using half of the brand new gates? If anything, I think that the airlines are in trouble, and we're not seeing an end to this. Yeah, GSP could use more routes, and I'm sure that you know this just as well as I do, and that is there are other unknown variables going on that we don't know, can't see, don't hear about, etc.

[distortedlogic]

Somehow, this does not sound like it will do GSP a lot of good.

[gs3]

^ I can't figure out how the article has anything to do with GSP.

This article is so general it could be any airport in the US. If airlines cut, they'll cut flights where the load factors are low. As a weekly flyer, I can tell you load factors out of GSP are high. There are many days, I have to take a mid day flight due to morning flights being overbooked. If anything, other cities in the state should be concerned. Remember how Allegiant moved their Tampa flight from another city in the state to Greenville? Load factors in the other city were poor, they were high in Greenville. If a flight is profitable and has more than 80% load, airlines won't cut it.

[ftrooptiger]

I flew back to South Florida yesterday on Allegiant........95% full.

I hope this route makes it once the teaser fares are dropped. I spoke with several people concerning the first flight on Thursday (FLL to GSP) and it was 100%. Plus, Sunday's (FLL to GSP) was 100%.

[distortedlogic]

TBA in this weeks Journal about the city of Gville getting involved in trying to lure lowfare carrier to the airport. It is a little confusing, but sounds like they may try to lure funds from the feds. I really hope it works, but I think it is really sad our area has to try this hard to "lure" a carrier here. With the success of the regular carriers here, despite their crazy prices, I would think lowfare carriers would be fighting to get here first. Especially in seeing the successes of Independence and even Allegiant in the market.

Edited January 6, 2008 by distortedlogic

[gs3]

^ I hope it works with federal funds, but have my doubts at this moment in time. The reason no low cost carrier is jumping at GSP is because "expansion" is a dirty word in the airline industry these days. With high fuel cost and razor thin margins, airlines are not really adding routes in any city domestically. Most are trying to cut capacity. Legacy carriers, like Delta, United and American are putting more focus on international routes with higher margins.

[gs3]

Northwest is adding a daily nonstop from GSP to their Minneapolis hub.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/go...amp;newsLang=en

[gvillenative]

It's a start. I hope these flights do good so we get more in the near future. I'm still holding my breath for a direct flight to Boston, and for JetBlue at the end of the ye..., Wait was that the end of 06 or 07?

[Galley]

Northwest is adding a daily nonstop from GSP to their Minneapolis hub.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/go...amp;newsLang=en

WooHoo! I have several relatives in Minneapolis, and whenever I fly to Fargo, I have to go through MSP. Northwest is pretty much the only airline I ever fly on. I don't mind flying through Detroit, but Memphis is terrible.

[gs3]

WooHoo! I have several relatives in Minneapolis, and whenever I fly to Fargo, I have to go through MSP. Northwest is pretty much the only airline I ever fly on. I don't mind flying through Detroit, but Memphis is terrible.

Yeah, Minneapolis is a pretty cool hub. The terminal/concourses are quite old, but the interior has been kept very updated. I fly NWA sometimes since they are Skyteam and I can get Delta miles, and I always try to choose MSP.....the shopping area between concourses is one of the better I've seen in a hub. Extremely excited this flight was added to GSP.

[RestedTraveler]

Northwest is adding a daily nonstop from GSP to their Minneapolis hub.

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/go...amp;newsLang=en

Is it just me, or do these times seem backwards?

Northwest will start daily nonstop service between its Minneapolis/St. Paul hub and Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C. on May 2. Operated by Pinnacle Airlines using 50-seat CRJ 200 aircraft, flight 5640 will depart Minneapolis/St. Paul at 1:10 p.m. and arrive in Greenville/Spartanburg at 4:47 p.m. Flight 5641 will depart Greenville/Spartanburg at 5:35 p.m. and arrive at Minneapolis/St. Paul at 7:31 p.m. Northwest currently serves Greenville/Spartanburg from its Detroit and Memphis hubs.

The time for the flight from GSP to MSP doesn't seem very coducive to using MSP as a hub for connecting flights (unless you don't mind flying late, I suppose)...it almost seems geared more toward the business traveler leaving GSP for MSP and for people just flying directly to MSP. I'd like to fly through there on connecting flights, if possible...but I hate flying after dark because I like to sight see from above.

[distortedlogic]

It's a good additon. Agree the times are a little strange. I definitely have seen a GSP/MSP flight on the schedule before. Not sure how long it lasted, but it was a couple of years ago. Hopefully the airport will be able to draw that lowfare carrier this year sometime. You can't tell me a route to places like Denver, LAX, Boston, Vegas, SFO, etc wouldn't be extremely successful.

[gs3]

Is it just me, or do these times seem backwards?

The time for the flight from GSP to MSP doesn't seem very coducive to using MSP as a hub for connecting flights (unless you don't mind flying late, I suppose)...it almost seems geared more toward the business traveler leaving GSP for MSP and for people just flying directly to MSP. I'd like to fly through there on connecting flights, if possible...but I hate flying after dark because I like to sight see from above.

It seemed about to right to me for flights to the Pacific Northwest. With Portland, Seattle, San Fran being 3 hours behind, connecting in MSP would put you into any West Coast city around 9:00/9:30 in the evening, to have a good night before meetings the next day. The time into GSP is about right too, to service any incoming morning West Coast (non-redeye) flights to MSP and make a connection.

[distortedlogic]

I noticed the GSP website has not put anything on there about the upcoming new flight to MSP. Shouldn't they be advertising this?

Also, do they not have a link to their passenger stats anymore? Thier current "stats" only link to economic impact study.

[gs3]

Also, do they not have a link to their passenger stats anymore?

GSP numbers are published in their updates. Received the 2007 number from Wanda Jones at GSP.

2007 passenger traffic for South Carolina top 4 airports:

Charleston - 2,300,000 (aprox....do not have the exact number on this one).

Myrtle Beach - 1,683,000 (includes charter numbers in addition to scheduled service).

Greenville - 1,555,000

Columbia - 1,254,000

[Greenville]

GSP numbers are published in their updates. Received the 2007 number from Wanda Jones at GSP.

2007 passenger traffic for South Carolina top 4 airports:

Charleston - 2,300,000 (aprox....do not have the exact number on this one).

Myrtle Beach - 1,683,000 (includes charter numbers in addition to scheduled service).

Greenville - 1,555,000

Columbia - 1,254,000

Wow, even Myrtle Beach had more traffic than we did in 2007?!?

I thought we usually seemed to have about the same traffic as Charleston, if not more in some years. I wonder what the problem was in 2007? I remember that we were chosen as one of the five most expensive airports, but so was Charleston. Perhaps landing AirTran helped their numbers a lot...

[gs3]

Wow, even Myrtle Beach had more traffic than we did in 2007?!?

I thought we usually seemed to have about the same traffic as Charleston, if not more in some years. I wonder what the problem was in 2007? I remember that we were chosen as one of the five most expensive airports, but so was Charleston. Perhaps landing AirTran helped their numbers a lot...

With the bankruptcy of Independence Air, we lost passengers, though the 2007 number is pretty stable (slight uptick) in relation to 2006. Charleston had a record year in 2007 and most all is due to the start of AirTran. Myrtle Beach had a record year as well and edged by us. I would expect both Myrtle and Charleston, being tourist areas, to continue to see good air traffic growth. If GSP lands a low cost carrier, you'll see GSP have the kind of year Charleston had.

On a positive note, I do think the number is pretty healthy for GSP considering we have the high fares and we are not the states largest city, largest metro, or a major tourist mecca. Is shows we have some pretty strong business travel.

[Greenville]

and we are not the states largest city, largest metro, or a major tourist mecca.

Tongue-in-cheek, yes?

[distortedlogic]

GSP numbers are published in their updates. Received the 2007 number from Wanda Jones at GSP.

2007 passenger traffic for South Carolina top 4 airports:

Charleston - 2,300,000 (aprox....do not have the exact number on this one).

Myrtle Beach - 1,683,000 (includes charter numbers in addition to scheduled service).

Greenville - 1,555,000

Columbia - 1,254,000

WOW! I am shocked at these numbers too. I understand your point gsupstate, but like Greenville, I would have thought we were MUCH closer to CHS, and more than MYB. Man!

Anyone heard ANY additional info on the quest to find a low fare-carrier?

[RestedTraveler]

Could one of these be GSP?

[Greenville]

Could one of these be GSP?

I hope so! That really would be nice. Do you think it is possible even though GSP didn't get the grant they were recently seeking?

[distortedlogic]

Would be nice, but unless soemthing has changed I doubt it. I think I read that Frontier would not be considering GSP when the grant was denied.

BTW, are we sure the number for MYB is correct? I was browsing on their website and saw where they were predicting about 800k passengers for the year. Could they really have doubled thier goal, or did I miss something?