Nashville, here we come. SC airport adds new direct flight, carrier

A seventh airline and a new nonstop destination will be coming to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport this fall.

Contour Airlines will operate five weekly flights to Nashville, which airport officials say is a frequently requested destination, on 30-seat Embraer ERJ-135 and Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft.

Based in Smyrna, Tennessee, Contour was founded in 1982 as a private jet charter company.

The airline is in growth mode, with new service announced this year from airports in Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Greenville, Mississippi.

Seven airlines is the most carriers GSP has had since opening in 1962. The airport now has 22 nonstop destinations. It is the second-busiest airport in the state after Charleston.

Contour is the second airline this year to add Greenville-Spartanburg to its service area.

In March, Silver Airways added twice weekly, nonstop flights from GSP to Jacksonville, Tampa and Orlando.

The airport was a joint project between Greenville and Spartanburg counties, built on farmland in an area known as Flatwood, so named because it was flat. It is almost equidistant between Greenville and Spartanburg near Greer.

Textile company owner Roger Milliken and construction company owner Charles Daniel were the driving force for the modernization of aviation in the Upstate, which before had been served by municipal airports in each city.