Greenville-Spartanburg Airport expands cargo hub in response to boom

South Carolina’s Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) is aiming to strengthen its cargo operations with a new 50,000-square-foot cargo warehouse expansion set to open in August. The next phase of the expansion will double the parking apron to fit six 747Fs simultaneously, and is expected to be complete next summer, Tom Tyra, director of communications and air service development at GSP, told Air Cargo World. [caption id="attachment_57065845" align="alignright" width="394"] Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport Cargo / Photo courtesy of GSP[/caption] “There's a possibility as this continues to grow, we can truly double our capacity — not just in parking, but double the capacity and warehousing and in material movement,” Tyra said. The addition of a new 173,000-square-foot facility is also under consideration upon the completion of the parking ramp. GSP began the first stage of its cargo expansion in 2019, opening a 110,000-square-foot cargo facility with 17 acres of parking on its apron that is able to accommodate three 747Fs simultaneously, Tyra said. Currently, both Senator International Freight Forwarding and GSP-owned Cerulean Aviation operate out of the existing warehouse space. “[Senator’s spaces] were full, almost on day one, but [Cerulean] filled up really quickly,” Tyra said. “It’s done better than we had hoped.” Maersk acquired Senator in fall 2021, and GSP is looking forward to how the acquisition will impact growth and development at the airport, he added. “That's a pretty unique thing to get the shipping companies involved in air service where they weren't before, that they really want an entire solution for their customers,” Tyra said. “That’s a pretty bright spot moving forward for airports like us.” GSP’s cargo tenants include FedEx, American Airlines, Delta, Southwest, Senator, UPS and Cerulean Aviation. The airport is looking to attract new tenants and has the space to build additional facilities, Tyra said. Cargo demand GSP reported a 48% year-over-year increase in cargo throughput in 2021, moving 79,243 tonnes of freight — the highest year on record — according to air traffic data published by GSP. In April 2022, the airport moved around 7,560 tonnes of cargo. Since 2017, GSP has seen international trade volumes increase 417%. “As companies have gone into just-in-time inventories and things, air service is really important,” Tyra said. “So we saw this coming, probably not quite as fast — I think the pandemic sped it up — but we had set aside space at the airport, land and plans for this.” Much of the growth can be attributed to regional factors, Tyra said. GSP is fringed by 500 international companies like BMW and General Electric. “If [on] the assembly line, something's happening there, you can't wait for a boat, you can't wait for a train, you [have] got to use an airplane,” Tyra said. Backlogs at larger airports like Atlanta (ATL), Miami (MIA) and Chicago (ORD) also drew stakeholders to GSP because the airport had the capacity and staff to handle the cargo. “We're a pretty convenient alternative — we have an 11,000-foot runway, we have interstates that go all through the Southeast U.S., we have great weather, we have rail connections that are at the end of our runway that actually go down to the deepwater port at Port of Charleston,” Tyra said. “We already have all the logistic pieces together that we could be a really good alternative for [customers].” Indeed, severe congestion issues surrounding major U.S. airports like ORD have encouraged smaller, regional airports like GSP to tap into new cargo opportunities and develop infrastructure. Louisiana’s Chennault International Airport (CWF) started construction on a new facility this past summer, Hampshire’s Portsmouth International Airport at Pease (PSM) will break ground on a new air cargo complex by summer’s end, and Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport (BHM) in Alabama will add a cargo handling facility next year.

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