GSP numbers slow slightly

By John Boyanoski  

FEBRUARY 22, 2010 9:55 a.m. (1)

The number of passengers flying in and out of Greenville-Spartanburg International was off slightly in the first month of the year when compared to the previous January.

Not a bad number considering the economy, but alarming when considering the airport is coming off its worst year in terms of people on planes since the early 1990s.

A total of 1,253,759 passengers used the airport located just off Interstate 85 in Greer last year. That was the lowest total since 1,171,826 got on and off planes in 1993.

In addition, less than 100,000 used the airport in a month four times in 2009 – January, February, March and December.  Passenger totals fell under that threshold seven times in the previous nine years combined and the last was in February 2004.

The 80,293 that flew out of the airport last February was the lowest monthly total since September 2001.

Last month, 85,051 used the airport. It was 85,455 in 2009.

Traditionally, the early winter months are slower than mid-summer at GSP. In 2009, the airport’s busiest month was July with 126,018 passengers.  That was down from 131,716 in 2008.

Full national numbers for 2009 have not been reported, but for the first 11 months of 2009, passengers decreased 5.7 percent from the same period in 2008, according to the federal transportation bureau. GSP was down 11.45 percent.

Rosylin Weston, a GSP spokeswoman, said the cost of fares is a major reason the airport is seeing a decrease in passengers. Upstate residents are using Charlotte and Atlanta because of cheaper fares.

Fares are cheaper there because of competition between airlines, she said. None of the airlines at GSP offer direct flights to the same cities.

GSP officials believe the only way they can create that competition is by bringing a low-cost carrier that will challenge the existing airlines and cause them to lower costs.

While many Upstate leaders have talked openly about trying to land Southwest Airlines for GSP, Weston said she could not talk about any potential deals other than airport officials were trying to get a carrier.

“We generally don’t talk about deals in great detail,” she said.

Upstate economic leaders have been trying to rally the business community in an effort to bring more low-cost carriers to GSP since last year in part because of the number of Upstate residents using other airports.

A  report showed that 59 percent of potential passengers were heading elsewhere.

The idea is for the business community to bombard them with letters and e-mails with specifics on BMW, the Clemson automotive research park, Milliken, General Electric and Michelin’s presence in region.

Another part of the plan is to encourage the small business as well as the large ones in the Upstate to use GSP more for their flying. One fear is that businesses, which have long been the airport’s backbone, have been sending employees on trips using other airports.

While the number of passengers on planes does not directly affect airport revenues it does hurt key sources such as parking fees, restaurant service and rental car purchases.

Comments

Add New

Gary Chumley  - Senior Mech. Tech.   |2010-09-01 06:31:53 I have used this airport since the grand opening. I'm always having to fly into and out of this airport. I don't really think the airfares will get any cheaper until the airport commision drops some of their charges to the different carriers that use this facility. It cost more to go from GSP to ATL than the rest of my trips to my final destination. Lets put the high cost blames on the right people. Reply

Leave a Comment
Comments are moderated and may not be posted immediately.
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."