A Florida-based company is offering Tampa Bay residents a new option for hurricane season: a membership that guarantees a seat on an evacuation flight, rather than joining the crowds fleeing by car.
PriorityEvac is selling memberships priced at $1,250 per person that cover two storm evacuations per year, with flights departing from Tampa International Airport and Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport bound for Atlanta. Pets can fly along for an additional $125 each.
Florida’s East and West coasts are covered separately, meaning a membership only guarantees two evacuation events on one side of the state.
The membership fee does not include a return flight to Florida. According to founder Jason Murgio, that’s because recovery timelines vary widely from storm to storm — some members may want to come home within days, while others whose homes are damaged or without power may need to stay away for a week or more.
Memberships don’t roll over. If no storms hit during a given season, residents must purchase a new membership the following year.
Murgio said he started the company after watching friends struggle to evacuate during past hurricanes, describing scenarios where family members couldn’t get seats on the same flight and one-way tickets exceeded $1,500. He said breaking down the $1,250 fee across two guaranteed flights puts the per-flight cost at $625, which he argues compares favorably to last-minute commercial fares that have climbed as high as $3,000 during past storms.
To time evacuation flights, the company says it relies on a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who previously served as NORAD’s chief of operations, along with a retired National Hurricane Center lead forecaster, to track when tropical storm-force winds are expected to arrive. The flights are operated by Global Crossing Airlines.
A portion of each membership fee goes toward Project Dynamo, a nonprofit that assists with disaster and conflict-zone evacuations and also handles logistics and communications for PriorityEvac.
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