GSP International

[Galley]

I picked up several relatives in early June.  I hardly recognized the terminal!

[bikeoid]

My flight is routed through ATL, but it's only $70 more. I think that is more than worth not paying gas and parking to/in Atlanta. And both driving or flying the Atlanta to Greenville stretch of my trip, I would still be getting in my front door about midnight. Id rather drive 20 minutes if I'm tired upon landing, rather than 3 hours to save 70 bucks.  

Most people discount the cost of driving down to just the gas.   Unless you keep your car for 10 years or more and do much of your own maintenance, the actual operating cost for depreciation, insurance, and upkeep is $0.50/mile.   Even from the east side of Greenville, it's 90 miles to CLT for example - that results in a real round trip cost of $90 to save $70.

[Jet-set]

^Not to mention parking costs, traffic to and from (isn't I-85 great?), terminal congestion and other headaches. I believe most frequent travelers realize the value of GSP whereas most leisure travelers still think CLT or ATL are "so much cheaper."

[Greenville]

^Not to mention parking costs, traffic to and from (isn't I-85 great?), terminal congestion and other headaches. I believe most frequent travelers realize the value of GSP whereas most leisure travelers still think CLT or ATL are "so much cheaper."

Plus, what is your time worth? The convenience of being a 30 minute or less drive to the airport, versus 2-3 hours, is worth a lot as well.

[vicupstate]

GSP considering podcar service

[gman430]

I could have sworn that I read somewhere that Southwest was dropping down to one gate but this morning there are two planes at two separate gates. 

[gman430]

Also, my flight this morning is 100% full and $200 cheaper each way than the next cheapest fare I could find which was US Airways.

[rssgvegas]

I could have sworn that I read somewhere that Southwest was dropping down to one gate but this morning there are two planes at two separate gates. 

Southwest is down to 1 gate at GSP, but with their current flight schedule they have 2 planes that overnight.  Currently at GSP American/US Airways operate gates A1-3, Southwest has gate A4, and United has gates A6 and A8.  Gates A5, A7, and A9 are common use gates and airlines pay on a "per use" basis as opposed to the monthly lease they have on their own gates.  Also, those gates have common use computers and do not have any individual airline setup.  Hence why when Southwest uses A7 they do not have the priority boarding line setup  1-5, 6-10, etc like they do at Gate A4.  At the common use gates there is a flat screen TV and when the airline using the gate logs into their system, their logo pops up on the tv.  When no one is logged in it reads GSP Airport.  Previously Southwest used Gates A3 and A4 and American used A5, but  American took A3 as it aligned with US Airways.  All of the airlines have more planes overnight than they do actual gates.  Delta parks and tows their planes and also uses the extra B gate.  USairways uses A5 overnight and United uses A9.

Edited September 27, 2015 by rssgvegas

[gman430]

That makes sense. Thanks.  Also, my flight coming back today is 100% full again. Great to see for the future of SWA at GSP. 

Edited September 28, 2015 by gman430

[gs3]

Their load factors have been only average from the start of service. The reason BNA and MCO were cut completely and BWI was cut on number of daily flights. Sadly, GSP is not working. My understanding is that GSP is currently in the bottom 5 for all cities served. On the other hand, Charleston is doing excellent.

Last ditch effort to make GSP work.  Atlanta only with 3 flights a day for 2016.......aren't the lease agreements up between SWA and GSP at the end of 2016????   Hmmm.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/2015/10/27/southwest-airlines-scales-back-gsp/74676048/

[chuckyvt]

I fly almost nearly exclusively out of GSP, and I believe I've taken a grand total of two flights on Southwest since they've been here.  Once to MCO, one to BWI.  Honestly, they rarely flew where I wanted to go (or what was often the case was they didn't have a way to connect me there from GSP), and if they did they weren't overly cost competitive.  I don't know if its a case of they just didn't fit in the Greenville market, or as I've seen speculated on other forums their costs increasing over time as they become more of a legacy carrier instead of an upstart. 

I especially got a kick out of this line:  "The three Atlanta flights also will send Southwest into Delta Air Lines' largest hub. GSP passengers can fly Delta to Atlanta and connect with that airline's network of domestic and international flights."

Yeah, OK.  I'll get right on that.  Nothing I would like more than to exit security, pickup my bag, and re-check/re-enter security.  I'll just head to Terminal B and fly Delta from the start. 

 

[rssgvegas]

Last ditch effort to make GSP work.  Atlanta only with 3 flights a day for 2016.......aren't the lease agreements up between SWA and GSP at the end of 2016????   Hmmm.

http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/money/2015/10/27/southwest-airlines-scales-back-gsp/74676048/

Southwest recently extended their lease with the airport.

[gman430]

This has nothing to do with demand at GSP. It is rather a change being done by Southwest to route many smaller airports through Atlanta like Delta does for better customer service and competition among the legacy carriers: http://gsabusiness.com/news/56065-southwest-airlines-to-change-service-from-gsp-airport?rss=0

Edited October 28, 2015 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

I'm afraid GSP will always be "held back" by the Charlotte and Atlanta effect. There will always be waaaay more options from those cities and most people in the upstate are willing to drive to one of them for their flight needs. It is a shame that the upstate can't have a better connected airport, but the sandwich situation may be too much to overcome. I hope SW stays at GSP in some fashion, because more options is a good thing. I think the main reason it just hasn't done very well here is that it never really opened up new markets. Had it opened with routes to places like DIA, LAX, SFO, or Vegas, I think those would have been truly a difference maker and very popular. Add that to their prices not being what they were years ago. And the Airtran merger was HUGE b/c it brought SW to Atlanta and Charlotte, so our little "niche" disappeared very quickly. I truly believe that GSP could support more flight and routes, and that if airlines would try some new popular destinations (not just different airports in existing markets) they would be successful, but they aren't willing to try.  

[Jet-set]

It used to be that I only flew on SW but within the last few years they have not been near as competitive as they used to be. Every time I have flown it has been with Delta or American as they were considerably cheaper than SW. 

[apaladin]

Charleston is doing well because they have no competition.. They don't have a major airport literally an hour away.

[gman430]

My favorite color is blue. How about yours? Complete the survey today and help us bring more blue to the area: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KDCVZZ8 Anybody completing the survey will be entered to win a $250 Visa giftcard. Sponsored by GSP Airport and Greenville Chamber Economic Competitiveness.

Edited December 17, 2015 by gman430

[distortedlogic]

Green for me, but I filled it out nonetheless. I have sent in GSP a couple of times to the "blue" website as a suggestion for new markets but never received any emails in return. Good to see the airport officials are not giving up on trying to recruit new service - kinda like Andy DuFresne writing a letter a week for years until they finally sent some dough to shut him up! 

[btoy]

As long as they don't recruit Silver Airways!!!

[gman430]

Just terrible news: http://mobile.gspairport.com/Pages/NewsAndMedia/Detail.aspx?fsId2&ItemID=149  Clearly the airport is on a decline.

[distortedlogic]

6 hours ago, gman430 said:

Just terrible news: http://mobile.gspairport.com/Pages/NewsAndMedia/Detail.aspx?fsId2&ItemID=149  Clearly the airport is on a decline.

Might as well close it down and throw away the keys.! 

The 186k is the most I see for any month ever. Also, through June of this year was up and down, but slightly down for the year as a whole. Starting with July, it has seen at least a 2.8 percent gain each month. Did something change in June/ July that might explain the turn around?

I still say, add some western routes and new destinations and they'd have to add more gates to the place. People around here would be all over some Denver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Boston, and Miami routes. 

[mallguy]

GSP should focus as well on adding mainline "legacy" airline service.  Just having Delta, United and American mostly run puddle jumpers to their hubs isn't sufficient because (1) for a frequent traveler who wants to go to a non-hub destination, it's often just as fast, or faster to drive to Charlotte and take a flight from there and (2) the puddle jumpers aren't as reliable as mainline flights. 

Let's say that someone wants to fly regularly from GSP to NYC.  The total travel time with driving to Charlotte and flying from there is about the same (or faster) as flying from GSP, and by driving to Charlotte, there's less risk of a flight being canceled between GSP and Charlotte. 

I've had now 2 flights from GSP to "legacy" hubs cancelled in the past few months, resulting in delays of 8 hours and 16 hours, respectively.  With that level of unreliability, I'd rather just drive to Charlotte.

[chuckyvt]

If you're going to NYC, I would fly Delta's GSP-LGA flight.   As far as flights other than flights to hubs from the main 3, I just don't see it happening.   I can't think of any city pair that would could sustain regular service on its on without connecting traffic.  I think GSP could put together an argument for more spoke flights to hubs however.   American to Miami, Delta to JFK, United to Denver are a couple that come to mind.

As far as reliability, I agree there.   I'm not sure if that's a mainline vs regional airline issue or what.   But I have also had flights canceled at this last minute. 

[mallguy]

American and US Airways (separately) both had flights between GSP and LaGuardia about 10 years ago. 

For someone who lives in Greenville and even moreso Spartanburg, it makes no sense to stick with GSP for regular trips to the Northeast.  They can fly out of GSP and be on a regional jet and have a choice of just a few flights a day (at most) or fly in the wrong direction to Atlanta and then connect, or connect in Charlotte and deal with the inconvenience of one more flight (GSP-CLT) that can get cancelled.  Or they can just drive up to Charlotte, be there in the same time it takes to fly, and have a choice of a lot more flights on regular planes, multiple Admirals Clubs and more reliability.

[gman430]

Yep: http://www.gspairport.com/site/user/files/39/GSP-PRT-Project---Notice-to-Potential-Proposers-20160122.pdf