GSP Airport: North America's Best Small Airport & Its Exciting Future

Discover the untold story of the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP), repeatedly named the Best Small Airport in North America! In this episode of Simple Civics: Greenville County, join Katy Smith of Greater Good Greenville as she sits down with Dave Edwards, the visionary President and CEO of GSP. Prepare to be amazed by the remarkable growth and innovative strategies that make GSP a true economic powerhouse for the Upstate of South Carolina.

What truly sets GSP apart? From its stunning entryway to the seamless ticketing and security process, GSP offers a holistic travel experience rarely found at airports its size. Dave Edwards shares how GSP "punches above its weight," boasting world-class concessions like Wolfgang Puck and Chick-fil-A, and an Escape VIP lounge – amenities typically reserved for much larger hubs. Learn about the beautiful artwork program that infuses a unique sense of place throughout the airport, honoring the region's rich history and future.

By the Numbers: GSP's Incredible Journey: GSP is experiencing unprecedented success! Dave reveals record-breaking statistics: now serving 29 nonstop destinations with seven airlines, handling nearly 3 million passengers annually (up from 1.2 million in 2009), and managing around 125 flights a day. The airport's annual revenue budget has soared to approximately $80 million. This episode unveils the ambition behind these figures and the continuous pursuit of excellence.

The Visionary History & Future of GSP: Explore the origins of GSP, a groundbreaking "Greenfield Airport" built in 1962, a rarity for its time. Hear about local leaders, like Roger Milliken, who spearheaded its creation, recognizing the need for a regional jetport to compete in the "jet age". Dave also discusses the monumental "Wingspan Project" that modernized the airport and hints at the next major expansion set to kick off in 2025 or 2027. While an economic cog for the region, GSP faces significant funding challenges, with $500 million in investments planned over the next five years and close to $2 billion over 20 years. How will GSP continue to stay one step ahead of the community's needs?

Why Choose GSP for Your Next Trip? Dave Edwards passionately explains why flying out of GSP offers an unparalleled travel experience. While other nearby airports might offer minor cost savings, the convenience, ease, and comfort of GSP ensure you "finish your vacation well". This conversation is a must-listen for anyone interested in regional development, travel, and the vital infrastructure that supports our communities.

Transcript

Katy Smith: [0:00] This episode of Simple Civics Greenville County is brought to you by Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, providing free books to children zero to five throughout Greenville County. To sign up, visit greenvillefirststeps.org slash free books. That's greenvillefirststeps.org slash free books. This episode is posting in the middle of summer travel season, and I hope many of you are enjoying a relaxing or adventurous vacation. Your travels may take you through the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport, one of my favorite airports in the country. And as you'll hear, I'm not alone in that assessment. I'm Katy Smith with Greater Good Greenville, and on this episode of Simple Civics, Greenville County, I speak with Dave Edwards, President and CEO of the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. We'll cover what makes our region's airport special and the history of GSP. We'll get Dave's perspective on the industry overall, and we'll talk about what's ahead for Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. I'm delighted to be here with Dave Edwards, President and CEO of Greenville Spartanburg Airport, to talk about a real fine place in our community. Dave, thanks so much for being here.

Dave Edwards: [1:09] Oh, Katy, glad to be with you today and always excited to talk about the airport.

Katy Smith: [1:12] I know that you are and you should be. So let's start with an overview for listeners. In 2024, GSP was named by customers as the best small airport in North America. No surprise to those of us who travel through there. I'd love for you to talk about what makes GSP stand out to business and leisure travelers.

Dave Edwards: [1:30] You know, I really think it's the holistic experience at the airport, from the entrance coming into the airport being so beautiful, to the ease of going through ticketing and security checkpoint. We have really, for a small airport, some world-class concessions with Wolfgang Puck, and of course, the concept that everybody wants, which is Chick-fil-A. And so, you know, I think when you look at all of what we have to offer put together, and really the calmness, the atmosphere of the airport, it really goes a long way in keeping our customers very comfortable and I think excited about traveling in and out of GSP. I will say we have inconvenienced some folks over the last year or so with some roadway work we've been doing. And we saw that directly in some of our customer survey data. But still, as you mentioned, we were named number one in our class in North America for 2024. That's the third year in a row that we've won that and four out of the last five years. So we're pretty excited about it.

Katy Smith: [2:26] Dave, can you just give us some high-level stats that help us understand what is GSP?

Dave Edwards: [2:31] Sure. I mean, I think the key is every stat these days is a new record, which is just, you know, fantastic. So we now serve 29 nonstop destinations around the country with seven airlines, highest ever in the history of the airport. First service to the West Coast with LAX last year, that's come back this year. It is seasonal right now, but now we'll run not just for the summer, we'll run to the end of the year. And then we hope that that will stay in place in 2025 year round. We have just surpassed about 2.9 million total passengers. By the end of this calendar year, we'll hit about 3 million passengers. Just a little perspective. When I arrived in 2009, we were about 1.2 million total passengers. So significant growth over the last 15 years. Our cargo traffic, I would say, is back on the growth trend. It really took off when we instituted international cargo service to Europe back in 2016. Grew like a rocket through COVID in large part because you could not move cargo on passenger aircraft going to Europe because none were flying. Those were all pretty much grounded because nobody was traveling. And then we saw a little kind of fall off of cargo as the logistics chains started to move back to their normal past. So back on passenger aircraft and the like. But still strong cargo numbers, strong operational numbers, hitting some of our highest operational counts ever. You know, I would say pre-COVID, we were at around 100 total flights a day, total in and out combined. We're now at about 125 flights a day in and out. So just continued really nice growth. If you go back to when I arrived, just a little bit of the financial side of the airport, we were at about $20 million in annual revenue in 2009. This year, we just approved our budget, which begins on July 1, and our revenue budget is going to be about $80 million.

Katy Smith: [4:24] Oh, my goodness.

Dave Edwards: [4:25] So just a significant growth.

Katy Smith: [4:27] That is really exciting. I love how when you arrive at the airport, and I hear this all the time from visitors, you have such a strong and immediate sense of place. That sense of place, I think, is really lifted up in the beautiful artwork. Just the artwork alone from local artists is really special.

Dave Edwards: [4:44] Well, I think we had such a great opportunity. There was a fair amount of art in the terminal originally when I arrived in 2009, but it was a bit dated, and we felt it was time to really create that sense of place that you're talking about moving forward. So we really themed the entire art program about the upstate, advanced manufacturing, the outdoors, water, along with the textile industry, kind of remembering the past and really where the upstate has been historically. And we weaved all of that into our art program, went out for a national call and did that in two separate tranches of calls and ended up with, I think, 200 to 300 artists actually responding to those art calls that we did and went through a pretty rigorous selection process. And now you see what we have today, which has really been great. And we've done some really nice stuff, I think, about putting some digital books together and some QR codes so people can go right to a piece and learn a little bit about the piece. And we're getting ready to expand that program with our new rental car facility that'll be opening later this year in November. So we'll be adding some art there as well.

Katy Smith: [5:50] Oh, that's outstanding. Well, you spoke about the past. I mean, GSP is such a huge part of this community and instrumental in the economic development that we've enjoyed. And I think a lot of folks take it for granted, newcomers and old timers. So maybe you can go back in time and talk about the history of how GSP came to be.

Dave Edwards: [6:07] Well, it's pretty amazing. I won't do it justice at the end of the day, but what I will share for those that do not know, there was a time when the two commercial service airports in the upstate were actually the downtown Greenville Airport today, the General Aviation Airport and the downtown Spartanburg Airport. And as the story goes, Eddie Rickenbacker, who was the president of Eastern Airlines at the time, happened to come through the community and talk to the community leaders in the upstate and said, if you're going to compete in the jet age, you will need to build a regional airport. These two small airports will not suffice. And then local leaders took it upon themselves, really led by Roger Milliken at the time from Milliken and Company, and looked for sites to site a brand new Greenfield Airport, which was the first in I don't know how long at that point, because most airports in the U.S. were actually conveyed under something called the surplus property act. So they were all former military bases that were conveyed to local jurisdictions. So this was going to be a Greenfield Airport built in 1962. And they went into construction in kind of early 1960. In 18 months, they finished a new regional jet port in the upstate of South Carolina. And since then, if you just look at the ongoing growth and expansion of the airport, it's been very steady. Our passenger growth has averaged about 4.5% or 4.6% growth on an annual basis year over year over the history of the airport. So very steady. Not that we haven't seen our ups and downs. We look a lot like a stock market ticker at times with passenger travel with various national and international events that we've all been through. But just a solid airport. And it has seen, you know, the initial building saw some growth in the mid-80s. Didn't see much happening through the 90s and into the 2000, early 2000 timeframe. And then I arrived in 2009 and we took a really a major undertaking in the Wingspan Project to really touch the airport from curb to gate, completely rebuilding areas and modernizing others. And it was really a terrific project. And that's where we're at today. And we're getting ready for the next expansion, which will probably kick off here early next year or in early 2027.

Katy Smith: [8:22] That is great. I love looking at old aerial photographs and looking in the 50s when Lawrence Road went in and Pleasantburg before that and looking at the little downtown airport and how it was in the middle of nowhere practically at the time and the vision that was needed to imagine what all could spread out from GSP being located there on I-85. I mean, it's fundamental to our growth.

Dave Edwards: [8:46] Well, you know, I always like to say people sometimes say that we are an economic engine and I always want to say we're a cog in the economic engine, maybe a major piece of that engine. And without a vibrant and growing airport, it's going to be hard for the community to reach the economic prosperity that, you know, we all want it to have. But I don't know that by ourselves, we're the engine.

Katy Smith: [9:07] So what are some pressures that GSP is facing as our region grows and in the industry overall?

Dave Edwards: [9:13] Well, I think the one thing we're blessed with at GSP is 3,700 acres of property, which is so from a landmass standpoint, we are more than capable of meeting the aviation growth needs of our region for a long, long time to come. I think the biggest challenges for us these days are just how do you fund the projects that need to be built. And so if you look at right now, projects we have underway, projects that we will execute on over the next five years, it's about $500 million in investments. And if you look over 20 years, it's close to $2 billion of investment. And, you know, we just have to find ways to get some assistance for that with some of the federal grant money that we can avail ourselves of. We've worked really hard at the state level for about the last four years to develop some type of a grant program that's a little bit more significant than what we historically saw. We've been somewhat successful in that, although we'd like to see recurring grant dollars for capital programs coming from the state. So, yeah, I think that, you know, our biggest pressure is really trying to make sure that we can fund the infrastructure in a way that is thoughtful, that is conservative. We have a very conservative approach in how we fund things. And I think it's worked for us to date. We are demand driven. So we only build when we know we're going to need it to be in place. But we have to stay one step ahead of the community so not to hold the community back. So we always want to be a little bit in front of where the community might need us to be. So there were not a negative drawback on providing air service, both on the passenger side as well as cargo side.

Katy Smith: [10:43] When you think about staying one step ahead, I mean, since GSP is without peer, at least in the market, coming out at the top of customer surveys all the time. But when you think about a step ahead and you look at other markets that we're competing with or airports that GSP is competing with, what is in place there that you would love to see happen here or maybe larger community conditions that help them?

Dave Edwards: [11:05] I get asked that from time to time. And I say to folks, it may, you know, sound a bit like we're patting ourselves on the back a little too much, but people come to see us. And it really is rewarding to have other airports. Most recently, within the last month and a half, we had Raleigh-Durham Airport senior staff come and visit us on how we were doing certain things at GSP because they're amazed at the success we're having. You know, there's always going to be things I'd like to be able to do at GSP, like a more robust concessions program on food and beverage and retail and those types of things. But the volumes just aren't there to do some of that. So we have some pieces of what we can do that our hands are a bit tied. But we tend to punch above our weight overall. You know, to have a, we were the smallest airport in the country to have a Chick-fil-A when that was built a few years ago. We have a Wolfgang Puck, Puck the Kitchen restaurant. We were the only second airport in the country to have a Wolfgang Puck restaurant like the one we have. So we are the smallest airport in the country to have an Escape VIP lounge, a concession lounge. So again, we tend to push the envelope for our size and bring amenities and opportunities into the airport for our customers that typically you would not see at an airport our size. So I've got a great team. They push hard. They want to be the best. That's why we continue to receive these awards on an annual basis and get some great accolades from our customers.

Katy Smith: [12:33] That all sounds right. I didn't know any of that data or comps to other communities, but just as a passenger, when I go, it feels just right. You know, you have just what I need. If my flight's delayed, I can hang out at Wolfgang Puck. It really is just perfect. And I think that experience comes through for all of us as customers. Well, you're getting ready to retire and your successor, Kevin Howell, has been named. I would love to hear you offer some reflections about your 16 years here and what you're proud of, what surprised you and what you think is next.

Dave Edwards: [13:02] Well, I would say probably one of the things I'm most proud of, and I would say this just in general about the latter part of my career, you know, a lot of times you get focused on the bricks and mortar successes that you've had, and we've had those, and they've been great with the expansions we've done, development of air cargo, air cargo building, the running, we have multiple business lines now and running our FBO. We have a cargo operation for international cargo. We do all the commercial fueling at the airport. We took over our food and beverage operation. We run that under a management agreement, very unusual in the industry. So we tend to do things a little different. We tend to take some risk in business that a lot of our colleagues around the country do not do, but we think it pays benefits. But the thing I'm probably most proud of is just the team. You know, we just really have put a great team together. I'm extremely happy that Kevin Howell received the nod to move forward. It makes me feel good that, you know, maybe we did do a few things right from a succession planning standpoint to set him up to take over the organization in January. And we've been working on that for three to five years and trying to get him ready. And he's just done a great job. And I know he'll do a great job moving forward. So it's nice to know that the board, the commission of the airport district, had that confidence that he could lead things. And he and I have been together for 20 years. So we've known each other a long time. He worked with me in Asheville for about five years before I came down to GSP. So, you know, yeah, a great win. So those successes, seeing people's successes and having a part in that is probably one of the most satisfying things. And that's not to say I'm not happy about everything else we've accomplished. I think when I came back in 2009 and I first looked at, I'll say, the canvas of the airport, and I just said to myself, Dave, you've got a pretty blank canvas that you can do a lot with. Don't mess it up. All right. And I think we've really are leaving the airport for the community in a much better place than when we arrived. And that's just because I've been given the opportunity by my board to be able to do some great things.

Katy Smith: [15:13] Thank you for sharing that reflection, because, I mean, running an airport is a very technical endeavor. But in the end, it's about people and that you invested so much in the people that you work with. And Kevin as well, I'm sure, and really look forward to see his leadership. I mean, that is true in all of the interviews we've done. When you have great leaders at the helm, wonderful things can happen. So thank you for that and congratulations for it. So Dave, before we close, I know that travelers have a lot of choices about how they get where they're going, and some might only fly once a year or once every couple of years and might not be familiar enough with GSP. So I would love for you to cover that. Why should folks fly out of GSP?

Dave Edwards: [15:52] Yeah, I think, you know, it's always interesting to me, believe it or not, I will still be at an event in the community and somebody will come up to me and they say, they'll ask the question, well, do you fly anywhere but to Charlotte and Atlanta? And I'm like, yes, we do. And where have you been? And I think what we found over the years, no matter how much you try to educate in the community and let people know about what you're doing, it's a difficult process because people sometimes only hear what they think they're hearing rather than really paying attention to fully what you have to offer. So, you know, the big thing I would say to all folks in the upstate, if they're looking for air travel, is just check us first, right? That doesn't mean you might not get a better deal out of Charlotte or you might not get a better deal out of Atlanta. And if that works for you, we fully understand, you know, especially if you're traveling with a family of four and you can save a few hundred bucks, we get it. But you're not going to have a better experience flying than flying out of GSP, and we'll still get you where you need to go. And so just check with us first before you just assume that it's cheaper to go out of another surrounding airport.

Katy Smith: [17:00] Totally agree. I would just add that any time we have made the decision to save a little bit of money by flying out of Charlotte or Atlanta, we are driving home from that vacation in complete misery, recognizing that was not worth the savings that we had. We want to finish our vacation well, so for sure, flying out of GSP is ideal. Well, Dave, I know you are a busy person who travels a lot, and I'm so grateful to you for making a little bit of time to join us in the studio to share with us about GSP.

Dave Edwards: [17:28] Well, I'm so happy to be here today. Thank you for having me because I could talk about the airport all afternoon. I know we only had a short time together. Maybe we can come back and do something again in the future.

Katy Smith: [17:39] That'd be fun.

Dave Edwards: [17:40] Thank you.

Catherine Puckett: Simple Civics: Greenville County is a project of Greater Good Greenville. Greater Good Greenville was catalyzed by the merger of the Nonprofit Alliance and the Greenville Partnership for Philanthropy. You can learn more on our website at greatergoodgreenville.org.