Greenville Downtown Airport is an airport three miles east of Greenville, South Carolina, United States. It is owned by the Greenville Airport Commission and is the busiest general aviation airport in South Carolina. The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems for 2011–2015 categorized it as a general aviation facility. History GMU opened in 1928 as Greenville Municipal Airport. In 1930 it received its first airmail flight. Amelia Earhart flew demonstration flights at GMU in an Autogiro for the Beech-Nut Company in November 1931. Eastern Airlines began scheduled flights in the late 1930s and Delta Airlines arrived in 1945. During World War II the United States Army Air Forces used the airfield for training. The airport was used jointly by the Army Air Forces Flying Training Command, Southeast Training Center (later Eastern Flying Training Command) as a contract glider training school, operated by Southern Airways, Inc. The 19th AAF Glider Training Detachment was a Basic training school active from September 1942 until March 1943 using Aeronca TG-5 and Laister-Kauffmann TG-4A training gliders. The airport was then reassigned to Air Technical Service Command and used as a supply and maintenance depot until being returned to full civil control in October 1945. Until 1962 GMU (then GRL) was the commercial airport for the Greenville area; in April 1957 it had 13 weekday departures on Eastern, four on Delta and four on Southern. Eastern had one nonstop to Richmond, but no other nonstops out of Greenville exceeded 200 miles. Commercial service moved to Greenville-Spartanburg Airport when it opened on October 15, 1962. On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 aircraft carrying members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd departed from this airport. The plane would later crash, killing multiple members of the band, as well as the pilot and co-pilot. The recently renovated terminal won a national award. Facilities Greenville Downtown Airport covers 385 acres (156 ha) at an elevation of 1,048 feet (319 m). It has two asphalt runways: 1/19 is 5,393 by 100 feet (1,644 x 30 m) and 10/28 is 3,998 by 80 feet (1,219 x 24 m). It has two helipads, each concrete 50 by 50 feet (15 x 15 m). The Airport Commission recently completed extensive runway, taxiway, and apron improvements, a major terminal renovation, and construction of a new road that made additional land available for development. Located at GMU are many companies that provide aviation services like aircraft