By Jack Houvouras
HQ 104 | WINTER 2019
Our cover story in this edition of the magazine reminds me of a trip I recently took to Greenville, South Carolina. Before flying south, I decided to do a little research to see where Greenville was located and learn as much as I could about the area I would be visiting.
At first glance, Greenville seemed very similar to Huntington. Greenville has 65,245 residents, while the surrounding region has a population of 400,492. Huntington has 47,079 residents and a surrounding population of 365,419. Neither city is located near a major metropolitan area. Greenville is 92 miles from Charlotte, North Carolina, 115 miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, and 136 miles from Atlanta, Georgia. Huntington is 127 miles from Lexington, Kentucky, 133 miles from Columbus, Ohio, and 160 miles from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Each city has a university — Greenville has Furman, while Huntington has Marshall. And both have thriving downtowns, a few big-city amenities and an abundance of outdoor recreation due to their proximity to the mountains. Greenville’s tourism officials boast of canoeing, hiking, whitewater rafting, rock climbing and cycling. Sound familiar?
But as my research progressed, I spotted some major differences. While Huntington’s economy has been on the decline since 1950, Greenville’s has been booming. In 1968, GE Energy built a plant in Greenville that today employs 3,400 workers. In 1975, Michelin North America built its headquarters in Greenville and today employs 9,400. And in 1994, BMW opened a plant in nearby Spartanburg that today employs 9,000. Those three companies alone employ 21,800 people.
There were other differences as well. Greenville County has 9,000 hotel rooms, while Cabell County has just 1,400. Greenville is the fourth-fastest-growing city in the nation, while Huntington has been losing population for nearly 70 years. Greenville boasts the highest level of foreign capital investment per capita in the nation and is home to more than 250 international firms from 26 nations. Huntington? Not even close.
So why does such a disparity exist between two seemingly similar geographical regions? The answer is simple: In 1962, leaders in South Carolina decided to build a regional airport that would serve both Greenville and Spartanburg. The two cities are 31 miles apart. Does that sound familiar too? Huntington and Charleston are 51 miles apart.
Today, the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport is a beautiful, modern, sprawling facility with a terminal that encompasses 322,446 square feet. It easily dwarfs both Huntington and Charleston’s airports combined. Greenville’s airport hosts six major airlines that offer 50 nonstop daily flights to 16 major cities. Huntington and Charleston combined host three airlines that offer 19 nonstop daily flights to six major cities. In 2011, the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport received an ANNIE Award from Airline and Airport News & Analysis for being the fastest-growing small airport in the United States. By contrast, Yeager Airport in Charleston was ranked one of “The 10 Worst Airports in the U.S.” by Frommers in 2018.
At around the same time that Greenville and Spartanburg were building their regional airport in the early 1960s, Huntington and Charleston leaders began debating whether to build a “Midway Jetport” in Putnam County at a location that was equidistant from the two cities. In fact, the FAA even endorsed the idea but stipulated that the citizens of the region had to agree on the matter. In 1967 a bond levy was put on the ballot. Cabell and Putnam counties enthusiastically voted in favor of the measure while Kanawha County was an adamant “no.” The idea was given new life in 2000, but once again Charleston leaders killed the project.
If you want to know what Huntington really needs, the answer is a regional airport. It’s something that should have taken flight in the 1960s, but we can’t go back in time. As for the future, if Huntington and Charleston stand any chance of reinvigorating their economies and stemming the tide of people fleeing West Virginia, then our leaders need to fly to Greenville and start taking notes.
