Palm Beach International, without the wait

Palm Beach International is the airport I wish every airport could be: one compact terminal, three concourses lettered A through C, and you can be at the curb fifteen minutes after your wheels touch the runway. My job is to make sure those fifteen minutes end with a familiar face. I wait by the main exit on the baggage claim level, name board up, and from there your afternoon is already sorted.

Many of my PBI clients are seasonal residents, the November-to-April crowd heading to Palm Beach island, Wellington, Jupiter or Palm Beach Gardens, and over the years those pickups have become reunions. I keep notes: which house, which gate code, who likes a stop at the Publix on Southern Boulevard before settling in. That is what a personal chauffeur is for. First-timers get the same treatment from ride one.

Heading south is where the fixed long-distance fare earns its keep. PBI to Boca Raton runs about half an hour, Fort Lauderdale about fifty minutes, and Downtown Miami sits roughly seventy miles away, typically seventy to ninety minutes on I-95 depending on the hour. You get one all-inclusive price before we leave, I handle the express lanes and the traffic strategy, and you get ninety minutes of peace instead of ninety minutes of brake lights.

Flights into PBI have a habit of landing early because the airspace is quiet. With flight tracking that works in your favor: I aim to be parked before your scheduled arrival, so an early landing means an early departure home, not a wait on the curb with your luggage in the humidity.