GSP Airport Restructuring Needed (Columbia, Charleston: home, income, tax)

[g-man430]

Originally Posted by gsupstate

G-man.....you should be glad airlines make money at our airport. Legacy carriers with high cost make money at our airport. You do realize that with the rise in oil prices, at some point, LCC's will become a thing of the past. It is a shell game being played by LCC's. LCC's are much less viable with today's cost structure for resources.

Frontier - LCC filed bankruptcy
Jet Blue - LCC has had dismal earnings
Allegiant - LCC has cut many routes
Skybus - LCC went backrupt and closed
Airtran - LCC has had dismal earnings

Southwest is the only LCC making money and that is because they had a hedge on fuel prices. Their day of reckoning is on the way, when this hedge ends.

I'm still saving $800 flying out of Atlanta even with the low-cost carriers going down the drain.

[g-man430]

Look at what airport ranks 2nd in the nation for the most expensive airfares: Cincinnati airport back on top in U.S. air fares ranking - Business Courier of Cincinnati:

[R1v3rRat]

CVG has been very expensive for a while. Lack of competition is what drives the prices up there. This is a well known fact amongst frequent Delta flyers.... Alot drive to DAY to save money vs flying out of CVG

[R1v3rRat]

Originally Posted by g-man430

What number do you come up with when you take the population of Anderson, Spartanburg, and Greenville counties and combine them.

Your right... it would be over 1 million... but I could also start to inlcude the surrounding counties of the other cities as well.... and they too would be way over 1 million.....


The upstate is podunk... the sooner more people realize it the better....

[cyclingintheson]

Originally Posted by R1v3rRat

Your right... it would be over 1 million... but I could also start to inlcude the surrounding counties of the other cities as well.... and they too would be way over 1 million.....


The upstate is podunk... the sooner more people realize it the better....

Combine Augusta with Columbia and you would easily have almost 2 million people.

[gsupstate]

Originally Posted by cyclingintheson

Combine Augusta with Columbia and you would easily have almost 2 million people.

Which then begs the question, why does Columbia's airport have even LESS traffic than Greenville's? Columbia's airport comes in 4th in SC in passenger numbers with less than 1.3 million passengers last year.

[R1v3rRat]

Originally Posted by cyclingintheson

Combine Augusta with Columbia and you would easily have almost 2 million people.

Combine Omaha with Des Moines and Sioux City and you would close to 3 million... I can play this game forever...

Greenville is what it is.... once people realize this and quit tryin to make it seem like a huge population center that it is not.... the better.....isn't that part of the "charm" some claim this area has, the smaller size.... anyhoo..... Every one whats to claim the both...we're huge...but we're small and quaint....

The truth is this area is a medium sized population area that shares SOME qualities of both smaller and larger population areas. It is neither large nor small....

[Greenville]

Originally Posted by g-man430

They might as well just close GSP down completely. Everytime I go there, the place is like a ghost town. They have no restaurants except for the one that charges an arm and a leg. No low cost carriers unless you count the one that only flys to Florida. Parking is also very expensive. Don't even get me started on ticket prices. I still can't figure out why cities like Little Rock can get Southwest but we can't.

As we've discussed before, the reason GSP doesn't have more "cool stuff" like restaurants, coffee shops, and retail is because GSP isn't a connecting airport for most people. It's either an origin or a destination. As a result, you don't have people camping out in the airport for long layovers. I'm not saying it would hurt to have a few more options, because it would be great. But if you're looking for huge food courts and retail stores galore at GSP, it's going to need to become a hub so that people spend more time in the terminals.

[Greenville]

Originally Posted by R1v3rRat

City of Greenville population ~ 60,000 The Greenville metropolitan area ~600,000

City of Omaha population ~400,000 The Omaha metropolitan are.... over 830,000

Little Rock city population ~180,00 The Little rock metropolitan area 840,000.

May be part of it... about a quarter million people population difference

GSP International serves the GSP metro, which is over 1 million people. We lose a LOT of passengers (I have heard it estimated to be about 30%) to Atlanta and Charlotte because of the higher prices at GSP and the relatively close proximity of ATL and CLT.

Originally Posted by R1v3rRat

Greenville is what it is.... once people realize this and quit tryin to make it seem like a huge population center that it is not.... the better.....isn't that part of the "charm" some claim this area has, the smaller size.... anyhoo..... Every one whats to claim the both...we're huge...but we're small and quaint....

If you are truly concerned about representing the area for "what it is," you would not have tried to portray GSP as exclusively serving the Greenville portion of the metro. The airport even lies in Spartanburg County, so you can't possibly be serious when you ignore Spartanburg's contribution to the metro (yes, the metro is comprised of Greenville, Spartanburg, and outlying areas). How is that trying to make it something that it isn't?!?

[R1v3rRat]

Originally Posted by Greenville

GSP International serves the GSP metro, which is over 1 million people.

Covered this theory in and around post 24....
I still think this statement is as accurate as it gets. "The truth is this area is a medium sized population area that shares SOME qualities of both smaller and larger population areas. It is neither large nor small...."

If you truly consider the area as a whole, I think you would have a hard time arguing against this statement.