A West Palm Beach company is betting Floridians will pay $1,250 for a guaranteed seat on a chartered flight out of the state when a hurricane threatens. Priority Evac founder Jason Murgio said the membership-based service was born from personal experience watching people struggle to leave ahead of storms. "Priority Evac really came out of me personally watching people I know try to leave ahead of a storm," Murgio said. The plan offers members a seat on a chartered Airbus departing from the three major South Florida airports and three others on the West Coast, with all flights heading to Atlanta. A single membership covers evacuations for two storms per season.
Murgio said operations are led by a retired Air Force colonel who ran chief of operations duties at NORAD and NORTHCOM and has personally directed Florida hurricane evacuations. The service is designed to get members out before highways jam and airfares spike, two problems that routinely plague Florida evacuations. "The whole idea is the plan is already in place and before everyone else starts scrambling, you know that you have a route out," Murgio said.
The concept appears to be unlike anything travel experts have seen before. Clint Henderson, managing editor of news at The Points Guy travel website, said the company's credentials are promising, but questions remain until the service is tested by an actual storm. "That's why I'm extra cautious on something like this: they say they do have the planes and they do have some very serious people running this company, they say they have the planes prebooked, but we won't know till the rubber meets the road in an actual hurricane," Henderson said.
For families, the $1,250 per person cost can add up quickly. Murgio said there is already interest from people looking to join the hurricane evacuation service. The company is positioning itself as a solution to the chaos that often accompanies hurricane evacuations in Florida, when both road travel and commercial airline options become difficult or prohibitively expensive.