I flew into Ashville about a dozen times I guess. Back in the 1970's there was a commuter airliner called Piedmont that served East Tennessee, Northern Georgia, The Carolina's and Virginia. Most of the planes were Turbo-Props. I'd fly into Knoxville from Norfolk coming home for a weekend from the ship or on leave. Five stops from Norfolk to Knoxville. Rocky Mount, Raleigh/Durham, Winston/Salem, Ashville, then finally about 1:00am and three hours late behind schedule we'd land in Knoxville.
It finally got to the point I could actually drive the 550 miles from Norfolk to Knoxville and get home a couple hours sooner. When I'd fly back I either had to fly to Atlanta, DC, or NYC, to catch a connecting flight to Norfolk.