Florida Airline Moves to Higher Ground
Low-cost Spirit Airlines is often mocked for its “no-frills” character, but apparently is the fastest growing airline in the United States. It is proud to call Florida home, with its corporate HQ west of Fort Lauderdale, in Broward County. Recently Spirit made news with its decision to move its operations center from Florida to Nashville, Tennessee.
The rationale was a “move to higher ground” due to flooding. The company put a positive spin on it, reinforcing its route expansion to the Music City, and underscoring its commitment to the Sunshine State.
While the press announcement specifically cited hurricanes, everyone in South Florida is now familiar with the multiple flood threats from coastal storms, deluge rain, extreme high tides, and rising sea level. It’s not the place for a 24-hour operations center for a growing airline where reliability and safety are critical.
Spirit is doing the smart and safe thing. They are taking critical operations and moving to higher ground up in Nashville, Tennessee — far from rising sea level, and off the probability path for hurricanes. It should be noted that Nashville also gets disaster flooding, which has been increasing in recent years, as in many areas across the U.S. That’s due to record rainfall, which goes with warming oceans. Spirit Airlines will want to carefully consider their new Operations Center in terms of topography and flood pathways as well as adequate building elevation and site drainage.
The larger message beyond Spirit is that more people and businesses are now looking at the impact of weather, fires, and flooding on their safety, security, and asset protection. Yet many do not distinguish that flooding has several sources: Rainfall and runoff can occur in low topography, down valleys, and downstream. In coastal areas flood threats include traditional storms as well as the king tide events, which are rising higher due to rising sea levels from the melting ice on Greenland and Antarctica.
Spirit Airlines is certainly not the first business to move to higher ground. They are in the first wave, but surely will not be the last. The tide is rising. The move to higher ground is just getting started.
P.S. My new book Moving to Higher Ground: Rising Sea Level and the Path Forward is about adaptation and should be available in bookstores and online in the fall. My subscribers will be notified. Anyone not on my subscription list can add themselves to the book notification list and receive the first chapter FREE by sending an email to: newbook@johnenglander.net