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I use Travelocity to find flights, and they have an option to check prices for a few airports in the area to see which one is the cheapest. Most of the time it's much cheaper to fly out of Charlotte, but sometimes it's cheaper or the same cost to fly from Greenville. I try to fly from Greenville whenever I can, but I usually use the Charlotte airport because of cost. I love the Greenville airport though, it's not busy at all, there's an outside garden to sit in the sun and get some fresh air, a few people smoke cigarettes out there. There's a nice restaurant where there's never any wait too. It's a quiet but fully equiped airport and definitely worth a few extra bucks in my opinion.
I fly out of GSP a couple times a month. It's a great airport to get in and out of and easy for the business traveler. If I only flew a couple times a year, I would shop out the other airports more. But, it's easy for me and I'm willing to pay a little extra for that convenience. However, I do truly believe that Jet Blue or Southwest could give the major carriers a run for their money in the price wars. Right now, the majors (Delta, NW, etc) don't even seem to try to give good deals out of GSP.
I live near the Mercer County Municipal aiport in Central NJ. The administration has tried several times to get a major airline to service the airport but have not been successful. Several commuter services have tried but gave up; maybe because we are close to the Philadelphia airport (about 40 minutes). This might be the same problem that GSP is having although, to be honest, the GSP airport is much nicer than ours.
Is it more expensive in general to fly out of GSP, or is it primarily when you are on a direct flight to your final destination? I ask because I worked in tourism at a CVB and our airport was small, with NWA, NW Airlink, American Eagle, United Express and Delta flying in and out. If you were flying from TVC to Chicago or Detroit, it was a small fortune, but I found that oftentimes, if I was on a trip with more than one leg it was either not any more expensive than if I were to drive to Detroit or Grand Rapids and fly out of there, or if it was more, it wasn't much more a lot of the time.
Nothing worse than coming home from a long trip and having to drive four hours just to get home!
It depends on where you are flying to. For example if I fly up to see my parents I can either choose Boston or Providence. Doesn't really matter (well yeah I prefer Providence because I hate Boston traffic) and it's cheaper from GSP to fly to Providence than it is from Charlotte but if I choose Boston it's more expensive. It's the same price if you're flying to Cleveland OH, more expensive if you're flying to Chicago.
I live near the Mercer County Municipal aiport in Central NJ. The administration has tried several times to get a major airline to service the airport but have not been successful. Several commuter services have tried but gave up; maybe because we are close to the Philadelphia airport (about 40 minutes). This might be the same problem that GSP is having although, to be honest, the GSP airport is much nicer than ours.
I suppose you are making the point that large airports can interfere with smaller airports, because I doubt that the Mercer County Municipal Airport has much in common with GSP International. GSP has all of the major carriers, but has struggled to get a true low-cost carrier since Independence Air went bankrupt four years ago.
Honestly though, I think Charlotte and Atlanta get blamed too much for Greenville's problems. The problem in Greenville is that most of our flights are booked (80-90% capacity at least), so the airlines have little incentive to lower prices. With better management, more flights with cheaper rates would be available and the 60% of the Upstate's travelers who haven't been using the airport (and who have been going to Charlotte or Atlanta to fly instead) would start using it.
I average about 3 flights a week and rarely go to GSP. It's usually much cheaper to run up to Charlotte or down to Atlanta.
As far as the airport I love it. It's very small and it's easy to get around in. I've actually checked in, passed security and got to my gate in less than 5 minutes.
GSP has all of the major carriers, but has struggled to get a true low-cost carrier since Independence Air went bankrupt four years ago.
Independence Air was hardly a low-cost carrier after their first 60 days. I remember my jaw dropping over their fares when they did the full page announcement in the Greenville News. About two month later, they were not even competitive with USAir, unless you were flying into IAD as your destination.
Greenville needs a real one, Southwest, Airtran, etc. Preferably Southwest in my opinion, and it's a logical choice for them, considering the two closest Southwest airports are Raleigh and Nashville. It'd be a good middle-ground for them in the southeast.
It would be great if Southwest were to come to GSP! About 10 days ago I flew out of GSP to Mexico via Dallas and have to say that it was such a pleasure compared to when I used to fly out of O'Hare! Yes, it was more than flying out of Charlotte, but the flight times were so much better, and I didn't have to overnight in LA or Dallas on my return. Plus I live 12 minutes door-to-door from GSP, so getting there and back home was a snap. To me, unless it's terribly outrageous compared to Charlotte, it's worth the extra cost. I wouldn't even consider Atlanta.
It was $300 cheaper for me to fly out of GSP than Atlanta or Charlotte to go to Omaha in December 2008. However, it was $800 cheaper to fly out Atlanta than GSP when I went to San Francisco in August 2008. It varies a lot.
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