A low-fare carrier is expected to announce today that it will begin service to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport later this year, an airport official said Wednesday.

Rosylin Weston, airport spokeswoman, declined to release the name of the airline, but she said it would provide regularly scheduled service.

The new service would be a boon for the airport, which has been without low-fare flights for about eight months. When a low-fare carrier arrives, other airlines often reduce rates to certain destinations to be competitive. Low-cost carrier Independence Air, which began service in July 2004, declared bankruptcy and halted all service last January.

"I'm sure we've lost some" travelers to nearby airports such as Atlanta and Charlotte, which could have lower fares on some flights, Weston said. She said GSP plans a study to determine how many passengers it is losing. That information could help airport officials when they are trying to attract new carriers.

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After Independence left the market, passenger traffic at GSP plummeted and ticket prices rose. In July, 134,912 passengers left and arrived through the GSP terminal, a 17.8 percent decrease from the 164,138 in July of last year. During the first seven months of the year, 899,637 passengers traveled through GSP, down from 1,068,300 a year earlier.

Weston said airport officials spent the months without low-fare service talking with low-cost carriers about providing service to the Upstate. She said GSP would like to offer passengers a choice of low-fare carriers as well as the major airlines.

Even with today's announcement, "we're still actively pursuing additional service with the existing carriers and the others out there," she said.

"We have a fairly good representation of carriers for an airport our size," she said. Currently, six airlines provide service at GSP, and passengers can fly direct from GSP to 17 cities.