A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

It was nine years ago when South Carolina’s Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (KGSP) decided it would <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2017-01-11/south-carolina-airport-takes-over-fbo-operations">take over the operation</a> of its lone FBO, which had had just one operator since the airport’s founding in 1962. When the previous operator’s lease expired at the end of 2016, the airport rebranded the facility as Cerulean General Aviation to distinguish it from its cargo and commercial aircraft handling divisions, which were also reorganized under the Cerulean name. Despite the intervening pandemic, the decision has been a beneficial one for the airport.
“Taking it over allowed us to have a little bit more control over the customer experience across all touchpoints of the airport,” said Tiffany Cherry, communications manager for the Greenville-Spartanburg Airport District, adding that financial concerns were at play as well in the decision. “It gives us a diversified revenue stream between GA, our land development, fueling, and cargo. When the pandemic hits and the commercial traffic declines, you have these other ones that help you through situations like that.”
The airport assumed operation of the 5,500-sq-ft terminal, which was built in 2009 and is staffed 24/7. It offers a pilot lounge,10-seat conference room, private passenger lobby, refreshment bar, business center, onsite car rental, international trash disposal, linen and dishwashing service, and crew cars.
The airport just began construction on a multimillion-dollar expansion of the FBO's terminal, which will more than double its size. “It’s going to be a passenger- and crew-centric facility so everything will be driven towards that,” explained general manager Steve Bowlin. Scheduled for completion in May 2025, the new addition will provide enhanced amenities including snooze rooms, a fitness center, two additional conference rooms seating 20 and 10 respectively, and decorative water features. As well, accommodations are being made for an in-house U.S. Customs facility as inspectors currently do not come to the FBO to clear arriving aircraft.
Occupying 22 acres at KGSP, Cerulean has 140,000 sq ft of heated hangar space that can accommodate the latest ultra-long-range business jets. Home to 34 turbine aircraft ranging from a Gulfstream G550 down to a Piper Cub, the facility is at 100 percent occupancy—including the brand new $7 million 25,000-sq-ft hangar that became operational at the end of 2023. Later this year, plans call for groundbreaking on another 35,000-sq-ft hangar.
Bowlin told AIN that such projects come at a surcharge in the post-Covid inflationary environment. Coupled with the hot building market in the area, that easily adds 30 to 40 percent to the cost of construction.
The World Fuel Services-branded FBO pumps more than 2 million gallons of fuel a year, while the airport overall—including its cargo and commercial divisions—tallies 26 million gallons annually, drawn from KGSP’s fuel farm, which has a capacity of 450,000 gallons of jet-A and 15,000 gallons of avgas. While the FBO has two dedicated 5,000-gallon jet-A refuelers and a 1,000-gallon 100LL truck, they co-mingle with the airport fleet—a trio of 5,000-gallon trucks and three 10,000-gallon tankers.
Bowlin noted that his facility caters heavily to the manufacturing industry, with one of the world’s largest BMW plants adjacent to the airport. That helps to avoid the seasonal feasts or famines seen in some locations. “It’s almost all business so we don’t see the real high peaks and valleys,” he said. “As you head into the holidays, everything kind of falls off, as does the manufacturing, but in general it stays on an average straight line.”
Looking ahead, KGSP’s master plan calls for the eventual construction of a secondary parallel runway to augment its 11,000-foot main runway. According to Bowlin, the 7,000-foot project would become the primary runway for general aviation traffic and would sandwich the FBO complex on the northeast side of the field between the two landing strips, providing easy access to either.
The FBO is a member of the Air Elite Network and is the only CAA-preferred location in the area. When it comes to customer service, Bowlin explained its objective is simple. “Our goal here is to get better every day and improve on service every day,” he said, adding that the FBO’s tagline is “Wheels up. Spirits high.” “We do a pretty good job of it throughout the airport.”

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