Southwest Airlines will celebrate 10 years of delivering low fares and nonstop flights to Upstate South Carolina on March 12. Celebratory digital billboard displays have been placed on major roadways across the region and all passengers traveling Southwest on March 12 will receive gift bags courtesy of Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP).
After a 15-year courtship and a community-wide effort to lure Southwest to GSP, the airline launched low-fare service on Sunday, March 12, 2011 with its inaugural flight to Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI).
Thanks to new passenger traffic stimulated by the “Southwest Effect,” GSP reported an unprecedented 38 percent growth in passenger activity between 2010 and 2011 and was recognized as the fastest-growing small airport in the United States by Airline and Airport News and Analysis. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics reported that average fares from GSP decreased by 14 percent, the largest decrease in the country. Since Southwest’s arrival at GSP, passenger traffic has doubled from 1,301,744 in 2011 to 2,612,236 in 2019. Southwest currently offers daily nonstop flights to Atlanta, GA (ATL), Baltimore, MD (BWI) and Houston, TX (HOU).
“In 2011, we said that the arrival of Southwest Airlines to our region was a game-changer. Ten years later, we see that prediction has proved correct and that air service access and potential for GSP continues to improve,” said Dave Edwards, President and CEO of the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport District. “We are pleased to celebrate this milestone with Southwest Airlines, and we look forward to continued growth in the years to come.”
