Double R Flo-Town
The Double R Flo-Town Podcast is where two Florence, SC locals—Reeves and Robert—pull together community stories, real talk, and a behind-the-scenes look at life in the Pee Dee. Born and raised in Florence, they’ve chosen to raise their families here and are passionate about highlighting what makes the city special—while also having honest conversations about what could make it better. With a mix of local updates, guest interviews, real estate insights, and plenty of banter, this podcast is about more than just where you live—it’s about why you choose to stay. Whether you're a longtime local, new to town, or just curious about the people shaping Florence, this is your spot for connection, conversation, and community.
Double R Flo-Town
Double R Flo-Town: Florence Takes Flight w/ Brad Beadles
Airports don’t just move people; they move regions. We sat down with FLO’s director, Brad Beadles, to map a bold, practical plan to turn Florence’s 1,500+ acres into a true regional gateway—one that adds the right routes, taps rail-to-runway cargo, and builds a homegrown talent pipeline. The story starts with hard truths: when Delta left, traffic fell, habits shifted to Charlotte, and airlines saw 55% load factors instead of the 80% they need to invest. The fix is local and doable—get business travelers booking FLO again, close the price gap with smarter schedules, and secure high-utility links like Dulles and Nashville that unlock global networks without the mega-hub grind.
We explore how Florence’s infrastructure advantages stack up: proximity to I-95 and I-20, access to the Port of Charleston and Inland Port Dillon, and an airport-owned rail spur that can be revived for a modest cost. That intermodal mix is catnip for shippers and advanced manufacturers, setting the stage for sustainable airport revenue and jobs. Add a user fee facility for Customs and Border Protection, and private aviation and on-demand charters become easier—including weekend hops to the Bahamas—keeping high-value activity based in Florence rather than leaking to Charleston.
Growth takes people, so we spotlight Runway 1000, a program that brings a thousand middle schoolers to the airfield each year, and a high school pathway with pilot, maintenance, drones, and air traffic control tracks tied to Embry-Riddle. Students can graduate with an associate degree and a guaranteed path to a four-year program if they keep their grades up. Alongside a refreshed FLO brand and a traveler-first website that surfaces hotels, restaurants, and local events, the airport is making it simpler to choose convenience over chaos.
There is urgency: American plans to reduce to two daily flights in 2026 unless loads rise. That’s also the opportunity. If we fill the seats now, we earn the second carrier faster, attract cargo investment, and shift the trajectory of the PD. Subscribe, share this episode with a friend who flies often, and if you can, book your next trip out of FLO. Then tell us: which nonstop would you choose first?
Double R, we have got the most important person in the PD, in my opinion.
SPEAKER_02:We've talked about it since we started the podcast. The the importance of the airport to Florence growing. And so we've got Brad Beatles, the director of the airport.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you for coming. Absolutely. You are the key player, man.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I I I mean, there's a there's a lot of players. I mean, this is uh it takes a village, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but this is an important one.
SPEAKER_00:It is. Um, the airport has been severely uh neglected the last probably 15 years. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You were just saying something to us before we started recording about you were in Naples, Florida, working in in Florida out of Naples, and you looked at this job opportunity and you saw the airport and you saw all the land around the airport and the possibilities that could exist here in Florida. So kind of take us back through that process.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So, you know, when I saw the airport, I kind of was like, you know, in in Florida, it's so hard to find an airport with land. And my airport, Marco Island, was landlocked due to water. Yeah. So we were done. There was no more development, no more growth, which which, you know, which I was looking for. I always look for, you know, how can we grow? How can we do things? And so when I saw Florence, I saw, you know, you know, 1,500 acres of land just untouched. And and then I started looking, you know, wait, what we have, you know, land to extend our runway. We we could possibly do cargo. We could, you know, why is there only one airline in here? You know, we have a metropolitan area of, you know, potentially 220,000 people. What's going on here? And so um I applied for it, and luckily the the authority chose me and and I convinced my wife and family to move up here. Luckily for us, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So hold on, we've got 1,500 acres that kind of adjoined the airport.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so the acre the airport has just over, I think, 1,500 acres. I didn't know that. Yeah, and and and in all reality, if you look at other people say, well, wow, that's a lot of, but if you look at any other airport, I mean, really, we should be looking at more. Okay, right? Right. I mean, if you look at Greenville Spartansburg, or you look at Columbia Metro, I mean, they're in the 2000s, 3,000 acre acre range. Oh, really? Yeah, okay. I mean, I think I think Greenville Spartan Spartanburg built a ramp that's like 700 acres for their 747s or something like that.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, it's no it took that much land.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So so I mean, we're we're we're constantly looking at that um now just to say, hey, you know, we're gonna start growing, where can we kind of make some changes and and where can we do some what do you think was like the the biggies that caused us to to the for the airport to kind of gotten to the depressed point it was at? Well, you you know, to me, I think an obvious thing was when Delta left. Yes, right? I mean, when Delta's last year was here, we had 160, over 160,000 people traveling through our terminal. That this year is 44,000. I mean, you're talking a quarter, really, of the people coming through. And and when Delta left, I think American being the only player in that game, you know, I always say competition is the backbone of America, right? So when America, when American was the only um airline, you just saw this drop, and then COVID hit. And then what happened there, I believe, just opinion, is people just started going to Charlotte.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And now, you know, we're creatures of habit. So people just assume, hey, I'm flying out, I'm not even gonna look at Florence, I'm gonna take the two and a half hour drive to Charlotte. And that's what we have to change.
SPEAKER_03:But here's the thing. All right, you take you think it's two and a half hours to Charlotte. When you go to fly out of Charlotte, it's a four and a half to five hour ordeal. Oh, yeah. It's way better to fly out of Florence. It I I really see you turning this thing around, and we'll have people that live an hour closer to Charlotte driving here to fly out of Florence because it's gonna be so much better.
SPEAKER_00:And that's what that's what we tried to do is try to get to Darlington and Hartsville, because you know, Hartsville really they feel like it. They feel like, well, it's in we're in Charlotte. We're pretty much there. But in all reality, if you you know, we are convenient-oriented people. I mean, look at Amazon, right? Yeah, yeah. So if we can get our prices down to match Charlotte and still have some of the routes that people want, if we can get a Nashville, if we can get a Dulles or a Chicago, then I think that decision is right there, right there to say, hey, I'm just gonna fly out of Florence. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:So you just said something fascinating to me because I've been in Florence pretty much my whole life, and we've always been able to go to Charlotte from Florence. Yeah. We for a time were able to go to Atlanta, but we've never had a flight, to my knowledge, to Nashville or to Dallas or to any other places. So maybe start with what is your big vision for the airport in Florence, and then we can kind of work back.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So so last week, um, or probably the week before, it's all running together, but uh, but you know, we talked to some airlines, right? And so we're we're trying to get Sky West to do it direct to Dulles.
SPEAKER_03:Awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, because I think, you know, I think at that point, now you have it, you know, in Dulles you can get pretty much anywhere.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_00:Same thing with Nashville. Nashville BNA uh is growing so quickly. I mean, you can get to, I mean, you can get to Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, anywhere you want. And and so that was a conversation with Southwest that we're trying to have and and really bring these airlines on. The problem is the airlines don't know much about us. Yeah, right. And here's and here's what I'm trying to get to people. When they do look, they're gonna look at our load factors, right? And they're gonna say, well, they have three flights a day, 50 seaters. Oh, wait, they're at 55% load factor. They really want to see 80% on those numbers, right? Which unfortunately, um we we can't really sell anything to them until our numbers are better.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, okay. So, how do we get our numbers back?
SPEAKER_00:Book a flight today. So, so here's here's the big thing. We have to get the business travelers back, and that's one of the things I think, whether for good or bad, COVID did, right? People started working from home. Yeah, so people didn't have to travel anymore. But we, you know, we had an air service development luncheon, brought the top 30 businesses in and said, hey guys, if you do travel, right, please try to book Florence, right? Give us a year so until we can get another airline in here. That is our hardest thing to do.
SPEAKER_04:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Once we get the second, I think the third's easy, right? I think the fourth, I think an ultra-low-cost carrier, something like that's easy. We got to get that second one. And so um, you know, the big thing is we have to start booking flights out of Florence. And and to that point, is our catchment area, which is a you know, air service development term, Marion, Dillon, Darlington, you know, the these places, we're only getting 25% of our catchment area, right? So we're losing about 28% to Charlotte and about 24% to Myrtle Beach, and then you know, Charleston, Columbia kind of, you know, are fall in there somewhere. But if we could just get 10% of those passengers to fly out of Florence, that would bring our numbers up to where we really need to say, hey, look, we need another route. Give us a Philadelphia, give us a Nashville, give us, give us Detroit, give us anything besides.
SPEAKER_03:You're gonna do it. We're gonna get it. Oh, yeah. There has never been a push and a buzz about the airport that I can ever remember.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, is it are are you able to track are the is there data out there to know how many people in that catchment area that you just referenced fly and where they're going to fly?
SPEAKER_00:So that's tough for us. We we do have a survey out at the airport, so I will say and they're labeled everywhere. It's just scan a you know, scan a QR code and take the survey. We're asking people where do you go? How often do you fly? What would be your best non-stop?
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And our big thing is uh and like kind of what you hinted on is yeah, we had Delta and we had American and we've had Atlanta and we've had Charlotte, but we've never had a Nashville. Imagine an Orlando flight, right? I mean, from Orlando you got the bullet train to Miami, right? So now you can get down the whole East Coast of Florida. Yep, right? Nashville, you get all these stops. And it's what I told them at the Air Service Development Conference. Are we ever gonna have a direct flight to Heathrow? Are we ever, you know, probably not. And nor do we want that, right? What we really want is six or seven really convenient routes where you can park in the parking lot and get to your flight in 20 minutes and and be anywhere in the United States.
SPEAKER_02:What about the overall uh health of the airline industry and air traffic? Are people still flying?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, uh luckily the government shutdowns over, right? And and um, we did a lot for our federal employees just to show, and that's one great thing about Florence is kind of being in this small community. The community rallied behind our federal workers. You know, we did a donation for them, we brought them lunches every day. I mean, we really had a lot of support, which is always good to show employees that. But um, airlines are booming. Okay. Um, Southwest our Skywest is um is has already committed basically to you know, talking about a direct flight to Dulles. Southwest is looking to come to smaller regional markets to where they don't have to do daily service. So if we could get a Southwest twice a week to Orlando, I think that's perfect, right? A Thursday, Sunday, or something like that. You could spend the week in Orlando or you can spend the week in Orlando. And so I I think that the opportunity's there, and we just have to get people to really fly out of Florence.
SPEAKER_03:Do you get involved much with the private jet in and out and that type of thing?
SPEAKER_00:So um I I try. Uh in 2015, um, the airport basically gave leased out the the the FBO, the fixed-based operator, to uh another uh company.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00:And so um uh we've had conversations about what it looks like to take that back over, you know, because the problem is when you do that, if you're if if I as the director say, hey, Florence is moving in this direction where we're we're all about our customer service, right? We want red carpet treatment for everyone. Um, but the FBO don't hold that same standard, I can't really do much to encourage that, right? I mean, I can basically say, hey, this is what we'd like you guys to do, but at the end of the day, that's their decision. Right. And so um our hope is, you know, by that time we've grown enough to where, you know, people will see the benefits of the general aviation side because that's really where we get there. I I always say there's three aspects to what we're doing. One is the airlines, which everyone, you know, talks about. Uh, the second is economic development. What can we do to bring industry and business to the PD region? And then the third is community involvement. How can we get to the kids? Right? It's it's obvious that jobs are flourishing in aviation. So how can we get to the middle school and high school kids and show them the you know opportunities in aviation?
SPEAKER_03:I've heard of a few kids here lately that they're one of the public schools has a program where they graduate.
SPEAKER_02:Is it Wilson? Wilson, yeah. My son, who's a sophomore at South Carolina, had a classmate of his who uh got his pilot's license through the high school program. And he's going to Middle Tennessee State for aviation. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And so uh I will tell you guys at the school board meeting, we just um we just got approval to go to the state. We got um support letters from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona and some other entities, and and we want to start four programs: one pilot, mechanic, drones, and air traffic control. Awesome. And so that'll start right in ninth grade. And so what we're doing as the airport is we're bringing middle school kids, we call it the Runway 1000 initiative. And so we want a thousand middle school kids at the airport every year. And so the kids will come and they'll learn all the different aspects. They'll go to general aviation, air traffic control, the airlines, TSA, you know, every place we can basically get them and say, here's the jobs in this specific area. And then boom, right in ninth grade, they can say, Hey, I'm interested in becoming a pilot, I'm interested in becoming a mechanic, whatever the case may be. And they can start. And if they are in that program, they can have an associate's degree from Embry Riddle before they even graduate high school. That's cool.
SPEAKER_02:That is awesome. That's really good.
SPEAKER_00:And and to top that, if they maintain a certain GPA, they're guaranteed admission into Embry Riddle for a four-year degree.
SPEAKER_03:Think about the difference in their life with that opportunity.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and that's what I always say is you a lot of kids, you know, especially me, like when I was in high school, I had no path, right? No one said, hey, if you do this, this, and this, you can be, you can be here, right? It was just kind of like, hey, figure out what you like and and you know, try to do something. So let's give these kids a path. Let's say, hey, if you're interested in this, here's how you do it. And and give them multiple pathways. And I think that brings a lot of kids um to structure and and kind of hope they need to move forward.
SPEAKER_03:And hopefully they'll stay here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Work here.
SPEAKER_00:That's right.
SPEAKER_02:I love that. That's you know, certainly a a very vital long-term view of creating great health to the airport, which brings economic viability. What about uh like infrastructure? So we've talked about needing airlines to come in and provide more flights to the consumer, but what about airport infrastructure runways or expanding the actual square footage? What's needed there and how's that funded?
SPEAKER_00:So um loaded questions question, yeah. Um so so you know, one thing that that we definitely need to to think about is how to grow, right? And and I I think a business is if you're not growing, you're dying. That's right. Right. And so so we need to figure out, okay, well, what what can we do? And one of the first things I saw was if you look at other airports in the state, cargo's really big. Yeah, right. I mean, GSP with BMW, I mean, they started that in '98, right? I mean, Roger Milliken, who the field's named after, basically moved a highway to expand uh extend their runway just to bring BMW in. So, you know, I started looking at this and and come to find out we have a railroad at the airport, right? That used to go apparently to Poston. And and so, you know, we got in contact with CSX and we own the railroad, right? So, so the airport owns the railroad all the way to the main spurs. So now what we're doing is trying to determine what that cost is. Okay. And apparently it's only like four or five million dollars, right? Really? That's it. That's it, right? And now, you know, when you look at Greenville, Spartansburg, they got a long runway, they got Greer Inland Port, they got access to two interstates, they have a foreign trade zone, right? We have all those things. We have I was getting ready to say we have all that.
SPEAKER_03:Do they have rail too?
SPEAKER_00:They have the Greer Inland Port, which rails down to the BMW plant, and then they have road, direct road access to the BMW plant. So, so um, but you know, we've had conversations with multiple people about the significance of you know, just this rail line coming to the airport. Now we have access to Charleston port, Inland Port Dillon.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, right.
SPEAKER_00:And and and so that right there, in a in and itself for four or five million dollars is huge. And and the hope is that we get, you know, the only way that makes sense from this is CSX. I'm not a rail guy, I'm an aviation guy, is either volume. So think Amazon or you know, or are a big moving UPS, FedEx, or um wide, right? Like like actual like big things. You're talking cars, you're talking planes. And so let's think of uh, you know, Embrier, Pilates, uh, you know, let's think of, or let's think of a Mercedes RBMW coming into the PD and providing jobs and all this economic impact to the PD region.
SPEAKER_02:I've often wondered, I'm so excited to hear that you, a young guy coming in here with this vision, because I've often wondered why we haven't been able to capture some of those big businesses, an Amazon, a UPS, a FedEx, a Mercedes, because like you mentioned, we have all of the infrastructure that is needed to transport cargo anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, the best thing is if you read the SC Economic Development Guide, one of the first things I did was like March. I was three months into the job, and that's what they talk about is South Carolina's known for moving things from place to place.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And and yet the PD's not anywhere in that, right? We are not doing anything compared to the other parts of the state. And so we got to start figuring out how to be in these conversations.
SPEAKER_03:So when these industries do want to come into South Carolina, PD is on the front of their so I think when they when those big companies come and look, and by the way, I love the sign you put out there. The flow, yeah, that that's awesome. And I know there's a plan to beautify that area because it just it looks bad. Yes, and I think that's a problem. And I think when these big companies come and look, they're like, this doesn't look good. Right. You know, how we gotta we gotta step that game up.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and and you know, here's one of the best things about Florence as well is you know, I talking to the city and talking to the county, they're open to anything. Yeah, right? Like if I literally go to the county and say, hey, I want to move this road so we can extend this runway to 10,000 feet, they aren't there, there isn't pushback. It's let's have that conversation, right? So everybody in Florence wants to see it do better, and that you can't beat because usually, in my experience, as you go anywhere else, you're gonna get pushback if you want to start doing things that aren't, you know, following a certain way. We've just needed you.
SPEAKER_02:We needed you. I'll be honest, I'm a little surprised to hear you say that. I figured you'd have a little more pushback.
SPEAKER_00:No, yeah, I mean, you know, I think everybody sees the benefit. I I mean, it's pretty hard to dismiss that Greenville Spartanburg is doing$4.7 billion of economic impact. We're doing$68 million.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, right?
SPEAKER_00:I mean, Columbia is doing$3.3 billion,$68 million. So how do how do we bridge that? And I think everyone that I've talked to, and luckily I have a great airport authority who's put me in rooms with probably the right people, you know, mayor, city council, county council, that they all see it and they're like, wait a minute, what do we need to do to make this reality? And and those are the conversations that we're finally having after, you know, 50 years.
SPEAKER_02:It really seems to me that Florence is in a better strategic location than Greenville Spartanburg. Just because of the coast, you know, yeah, Greenville Spartanburg has the mountains, but we've got the coast, we've got Charleston proximity, all of that, the same type of infrastructure, we just didn't have the leadership that went and got it done. Like and hopefully we do now.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you. And and you know, here's the thing is if you would try to bring cargo into Myrtle Beach, now Myrtle Beach has enough tourism, yeah, right, that they they don't need cargo, nor do they probably want it at this point.
SPEAKER_03:Or the traffic, they don't want that anymore.
SPEAKER_00:So why would you try to bring all of your cargo in inland when you could bring it into Florence and push out towards Myrtle Beach, Wilmington, Charlotte, and and to the to the west, right?
SPEAKER_03:Why has that not been happening?
SPEAKER_02:Why well it's lack of vision, and um, but we've got more and more leaders, and and Brad, I think you're certainly one of the those guys who's who gets the vision, and I'm excited. And so we've got commercial aviation, we're working to build that. Yes, we've got some infrastructure needs, and and you're aware of that, and then the commercial or the uh the business side, yeah, and and using the airport for cargo, yes, and all of those help go build the economic viability of this area, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And and and and we're I tell you, we just got our new website, right? So please please check out the new website. Uh we're pretty proud of it because the old website was pretty bad. Um, but it it should promote Florence a lot more. So, so you know, when you got on the old website, you couldn't find a hotel, you couldn't find a restaurant, right? You couldn't find anything. So we actually talked to all these restaurants, all the hotels. We said, Hey, would you like to be on our website? They're like, absolutely. You can even get discounts from some of them on our website, right? And then we went to PD tourism because there is a lot of things going on in the PD, you just don't know about it, right? So that we have a link to PD tourism with all the calendars of things going on. So when you're visiting Florence, you can see, hey, there's a Pecan, you say it, PCAN, right? Pecan, pecan, I call it the Pecan. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:But you can see these things.
SPEAKER_00:But uh, but and and off that is we're more transparent. So if you guys want to say, hey, what's the airport doing? You can get on the website and see exactly what our capital improvement plan is and say, hey, you know, this is the plan the airport has for the next five years. Now, due to funding and things like that, that's gonna change yearly. But we are posting that. We're posting our financials so people can see exactly where we're spending money and so everyone knows that the airport's on the right track.
SPEAKER_03:You know this interesting vision I've got, and and you were talking earlier about flying into Orlando and taking the bullet train to Miami. What if one day you fly into Florence and take the bullet train to Charleston? Justin, right? We were gonna do an episode where we go take the train to Charleston for a day. We got to get up at like 3 a.m.
SPEAKER_02:It is we've got to be on the train at 3 p.m.
SPEAKER_03:Really?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so if if do you say it, you've been looking into it. Well, I have. Yeah. So we're gonna do a podcast in December of us going one day to Charleston via the train, but the schedule as it sits now is leaving the train station at like 3:30. And to get back into Florence, you have to get on the train at 9 p.m. to get back at like 11:30 p.m. And and even if, you know, again, you're the airport guy, not the train guy, but what if Amtrak could do a train Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday with more convenient times, pull it to Charleston and back?
SPEAKER_00:You know, you know, what about you know, eight eight to eight or something, you know? Yeah, the infrastructure is there, right? Infrastructure's there, right? We just gotta bring awareness to it. Well, and that that's the thing too, is we're so we're bringing on uh customs and border patrol, right? So that's something else that that we've applied for. So we applied to have a user fee facility which would bring customs and border patrol uh to the airport um every day, right? And people are like, well, why would you do that? Well, for one, if any cargo comes in, they have to inspect it. But two, because then we can do international flights.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Now, we may not, like I said, we may not have a direct to heathrow, but imagine a charter flight to the Bahamas for the weekend, right? So where if you could come into Florence and book a you know nine-person plane and be to the Bahamas and you leave Thursday night, you're back Sunday night, ready for work Monday morning. Wow. I mean, that's what we almost want like on-demand charter service in some of these places.
SPEAKER_02:That's interesting because I hadn't thought about this aspect. So let's just say we've got this five and a half million dollar listing we're getting ready to go to market with. Say somebody comes in, they buy this property in Florence. Very likely they would have a private plane as well if you can afford a five and a half million dollar property. But they could not take their private plane to the Bahamas and then come back because we don't have custom and border.
SPEAKER_00:Correct. So a lot of people thought about it. A lot of people will have to fly to Charleston executive, right? Or or go somewhere else to go to Customs and Border Patrol to then fly out. Interesting. Yeah. So, so you know, I talked to a lady um a couple months ago, and that's exactly she's like, no, we just took our plane to Charleston. So now we probably missed out on someone with probably more cash than I'll ever see in my life. Yeah, but a lot more money that said, you know what, if if we had some of these things, some of these capabilities, we would have built a hangar in Florence. Really? And and and I don't know if she would have, but I know that I know definite if we don't have it, they're not going to. Yeah. Right. So we need to start asking ourselves, what do what can we do to be better, right? To help all the people in Florence. Because there are people here who probably do want a hanger and and an aircraft here in the airport, but they don't. They're like, Man, I'll just go to Charleston or I'll go here, or you know. Getting to Charleston's becoming a pain.
SPEAKER_03:Oh. You know, I mean, I I know, I know if it was available here, they it'd be a lot easier.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and it's gonna get worse, right? I mean, Charleston's booming. Oh, yeah. And and really, I mean, South Carolina's booming. And and I think that's why this kind of meshes perfectly. If we can start getting the airport to move in the right direction, uh, I mean, I think people, yeah, people will come if you build it.
SPEAKER_03:You are doing such a good job getting the word out.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:Billboards are awesome. Thank you. Billboards are really good. The whole fly flip, I mean, you're nailing the branding and the marketing plan.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so so you know, I I can't take credit for that. I I instilled uh the help of uh of a good uh actually a Florence native. Really? Uh yeah. Oh Barry Townsend. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Um he came up with the branding.
SPEAKER_00:Me, so I met him and and I knew he did some, you know, very good marketing for a lot of different companies. And and I he'll tell you he kind of drank the Kool-Aid, and he was like, I'm I'm 100% behind flow. So me and him started working. He comes to me with this design and he's like, Look, man, in case you didn't know, everyone talks about Florence's flow town, right? Everything's flow. And then so I started looking into it. And so he said, What do you think about just going with our identifier? Because that's our airport identifier, right? Is FLO.
SPEAKER_04:Perfect.
SPEAKER_00:And and I said, you know what? Um, screw LAX, right? Like, like, you know what? That don't even make sense. We're flow, we make sense, right? So I'm like, let's nail it. And and so then we came up with this idea, you know, LAX has that huge sign in the front of their airport that says LAX, and I'm like, I want FLO right out of it. Yes, I love it. So, and so we we decided to put that out there, and and I think a lot of people are coming, you know, getting behind the airport and kind of our initiative.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. Well, I'd love for you to kind of come back as much as you'd like and keep us posted on the progress, because this is a huge piece of the puzzle.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and if I can say one thing, guys, my meeting with American, and I I I always hate to use the scare tactic, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:In 2026, they're taking us down to two flights a day.
SPEAKER_01:If we don't no, it's it's all it's done. It's done.
SPEAKER_00:It's done. So uh from what I gather, there'll be a 6 15 a.m. and then there'll be a 4 30, 6 15 departure, and then coming back at 4 30 p.m. and then coming back at 10 30 p.m. Um that's it.
SPEAKER_03:But if we start filling those up, then you've got the opportunity to then. Yeah, okay. Yeah, we just gotta fill those flights.
SPEAKER_00:We gotta fill those flights. And and so um I I always tell people, plan ahead, because I know someone who is flying to the Bahamas from Florence, and it was actually cheaper to fly out of Florence than it was Charlotte. So you just gotta look, right? And for those of people who don't know, if you search twice, the the rates will always go up for your flight. So once you search the first time, that's the cheapest you're usually gonna find it because then you're you know, they got you. They're like, ha, this guy wants to fly to the Bahamas. There you go. You know what? We're gonna keep raising this price every time he checks. So so I always tell people plan ahead, just try to use your local airport because that money just goes right back into the local economy.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, absolutely. Well, Brad, I I am So thankful you're here. I appreciate that. I'm excited to have young people in Florence who have a vision for growth, who understand what Florence can be selfishly. I'm just going to ask you to give us at least five years.
SPEAKER_00:Don't go anywhere for five years. The authority made me uh sign five-year contract. So I'm here doing it.
SPEAKER_03:I'm here for y'all getting itchy. We'll give you the five million dollar house. Okay. Just move in.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. No, but we're I'm committed at this point.
SPEAKER_02:Let's run after this vision because I believe it can happen.
SPEAKER_00:It can. And you know what? We're gonna make it happen much quicker than planned. I am one of these, uh I say aggressively patient.
SPEAKER_02:Good.
SPEAKER_00:Um, but we're gonna make it happen quick quicker than what we planned. So we're excited. Thank you for everything. Thank you for us. Thanks for having us.