The amount of personal jet journeys leaving Florida spiked this week forward of Hurricane Ian’s landfall as deep-pocketed residents sought to avoid the powerful storm.
A complete of 319 personal, enterprise or chartered flights departed airports situated in Naples, Tampa and Orlando — cities within the storm’s path — on Monday and Tuesday.
That was a rise of 71% in comparison with the identical days two weeks in the past in response to statistics from monitoring service FlightAware.
The information was first obtained by Bloomberg and later confirmed by The Submit. The information was correct as of 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
A number of the flights had been sure for unique trip locales, resembling Nantucket, Mass., and Aspen, Colo., the flight data confirmed. The information doesn’t reveal who’s touring on the personal flights or what number of passengers are on board.
Luxurious personal jet operator Flexjet mentioned it has acquired numerous requests from folks searching for to depart Florida within the days forward of the storm. The corporate added that some passengers really sought journeys into the state, presumably to make preparations at properties within the hurricane’s path.
“The request quantity coming in has been heavy however manageable,” a Flexjet spokesperson mentioned in an announcement to The Submit.
“Our expertise tells us that if there’s harm to any space, there might be a brand new surge of journey requests to get in or fly folks out afterwards – which we’re ready for,” the spokesperson added. “As well as, airport closures within the space and whether or not they maintain harm might affect our potential to get out and in of desired areas for our plane homeowners.”
The hurricane induced widespread disruption to business flights within the days prior to creating landfall.
Tampa Worldwide Airport and Southwest Florida Worldwide Airport have suspended operations since Tuesday and canceled departing flights via no less than Thursday in response to the storm. Orlando Worldwide Airport ceased business operations as of Wednesday morning.
Florida state officers ordered greater than 2.5 million residents to evacuate as Hurricane Ian approached. The hurricane made landfall on Wednesday afternoon as a Class 4 storm, with huge storm surges and winds as excessive as 155 mph.
“That is going to be a nasty nasty day, two days,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis mentioned at a press convention earlier Wednesday.
As The Post reported, Walt Disney World instructed its company already on web site to shelter in place and closed its theme parks and resorts.
