Do you have a storm plan?

Plan on departing at least seventy-two hours before the National Hurricane Center’s forecast puts tropical-storm-force winds at your coast. Naples Airport tells its own tenants exactly that, and it begins rationing fuel around three days out, stops fueling two days out, and closes the field roughly two days before the storm. Once surface winds reach about thirty miles an hour, moving an aircraft is no longer practical.

Not once the airport is closed. During Hurricane Milton, Tampa, St Pete-Clearwater, Albert Whitted and Sarasota all shut for roughly three days, navigation aids and approach lighting were deliberately powered down at several Florida fields, and Gulf airways were closed. Charter does not fly in conditions airlines cannot. What it changes is that you can leave earlier, from a smaller field, on a schedule you set.

No, and you should be sceptical of anyone who says otherwise. One operator logged more than a hundred storm-related requests in twenty-four hours during Milton and flew about twenty of them. Aircraft, crew duty time, fuel and parking are all finite. Peak is a charter broker and arranges flights on aircraft operated by vetted direct air carriers; we are not a direct air carrier ourselves. The earlier you tell us, the more honest options exist.

Whichever field still has fuel and staff and can take your aircraft. That is a question of weight limits, tower hours, customs windows and curfews rather than distance. Opa-locka is capped at forty thousand pounds and open 0700 to 2300. Fort Lauderdale Executive closes Runway 13/31 from 2200 to 0700. Palm Beach International and Savannah hold up well because they are large fields with long runways and near round-the-clock operations.

It depends on the aircraft, the number of passengers and where you are going, and it is quoted in writing before you commit. Peak charges no membership or annual fees and pricing is all-inclusive. We will not put a figure on a page like this, because availability during a storm week is what actually moves the number. You pay for the flight, not the privilege of asking about one.

Later than you would like, and we will not guess. A recovery flight restriction, or TFR, usually goes up about twenty-four hours before landfall and stays up afterwards. Towers can go unstaffed, and only airport management can declare a field closed or open again. After Ian, Naples lost roughly 1,200 airfield lights and signs and could not operate at night for fourteen days. We watch the notices and tell you the first day the field is genuinely usable.

Yes, and it is one of the honest reasons to charter rather than fly commercial. Pets travel in the cabin with you rather than in a hold, and we confirm the operator’s pet policy in writing before you commit, because they are not uniform.

Tell us the animals and their crates when you call, since they change the aircraft we quote. The same is true of a wheelchair, oxygen or other medical equipment: the aircraft and the FBO both have to be chosen around it, and how you board differs from one aircraft to the next. None of it is difficult when we know in advance.

No, and nobody should tell you otherwise. Nothing flies through a hurricane. What a charter aircraft does is leave earlier, from a field the airlines do not schedule, while the weather at your departure airport is still well inside limits.

The decision is made on the conditions at the field at the moment of departure, not on where the storm is forecast to go. Wind is what ends it: once surface winds reach roughly thirty miles an hour, moving an aircraft on the ground stops being practical, and that happens well before the storm arrives.

They solve different problems. A membership sells a seat on a scheduled aircraft, from a fixed list of airports to a fixed destination, at a known annual price, and that has real value if you have no plan at all. What it does not usually include is the flight home, where you stay, or any say in the aircraft, the timing or the destination.

Peak has no membership tier and no annual fee. You pay for the flight, and you choose the field, the aircraft and where you are going. If your household is large, travelling with pets, or you want to come back on your own schedule, a charter answers more of the problem.

Yes, because a seasonal forecast is a probability, not a schedule. NOAA’s August 2026 update maintained a below-normal Atlantic season, with seven to thirteen named storms and a seventy-five per cent chance of below-normal activity, driven by an unusually strong El Niño. That tells you how many storms are likely, not whether one of them turns toward your coast.

A quiet season with one landfall on your county is not a quiet season for you. Holding a plan costs nothing: we identify the aircraft, the field and the destination, and it sits ready until you need it.