ATLANTA — As hurricane season continues, a new service is offering residents a guaranteed seat on an evacuation flight for a price.
Priority Evac, a Florida-based company, is guaranteeing evacuation flights to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as storms approach, if they pay the four-figure membership fee.
“It came out of watching people I know try to leave ahead of a storm and not being able to,” Priority Evac Founder Jason Murgio told Channel 2’s Michael Doudna.
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Murgio is a Florida resident and says he’s experienced the chaos of evacuations firsthand.
“Evacuation becomes a systemic failure because you have a mad rush; you have many people looking for the same resources at the exact same time,” Murgio said. “I kept thinking there has to be a better way a better Way to have capacity reserved before the season instead of scrambling last-minute.”
Priority Evac contracted with GlobalX to essentially have a fleet of Airbus 320s on retainer.
“So upon our call, our activation, they reposition those aircraft to the requisite airports that are needed, and those aircraft are available for our members,” Murgio said.
Murgio says the activation system will work based on information from the National Hurricane Center.
To get full activation, Priority Evac says it requires both a timing trigger and a severity trigger.
Timing Trigger (any one of the following):
- 40% probability of tropical-storm-force winds at a designated service airport
- National Hurricane Center Hurricane Watch issued for the affected Coverage Coast
- Earliest Reasonable Arrival Time (ERAT) under 72 hours
Severity Trigger (either of the following):
- The storm has reached Category 1 hurricane strength or higher
- The National Hurricane Center Forecast Advisory projects Category 2 hurricane strength within 48 hours
“The trigger system that we developed is objective and binary. It’s not a judgment call,” Murgio said.
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Membership fees start at $1,250 per person per hurricane season.
The company also offers family plans, and can accept dogs on the plane for a $125 fee.
The membership includes up to two evacuations, but does not include a return flight nor transportation to the airport.
However, some local residents worry they cannot afford to pay for the peace of mind.
“It’s like insurance, use it or lose it,” David Lomax, an Atlanta resident with family in Florida, said.
“It’s only peace of mind for people for like, like I said, those ultra-wealthy people. What about the single mom with five kids?” Donterrius Govan, another Atlanta native with a Florida family, said.
The company says a main focus for members is those who do not want to scramble ahead of a storm, and populations that may need help evacuating.
“We also talk about students in Florida, often without family members and resources to help them evacuate,” Murgio said, “and a group we hear a lot from are adults living out of the state with elderly parents still in Florida who can’t easily evacuate on their own. This gives those families a way to get those family members out safely.”
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