The Route
Charter Flights from Miami to Big Major Cay
Big Major Cay sits in the Exuma Cays, about 225 nautical miles southeast of Miami, and it is the island the swimming pigs made famous. Nobody lives on it. There is no runway, no pier and no road, so the real question is not which aircraft lands on the cay, but which one puts your party closest to Pig Beach with the least fuss: on the water off the beach, on the strip at Staniel Cay a mile away, or somewhere nearby agreed before the day.
Charter flights from Miami to Big Major Cay are private: the whole aircraft is yours and nobody else is on board. You name the hour, we set the aircraft, the crew, the entry stop on the way in and the boat at the other end, and both border filings are ours. Your party brings passports and a bag, per the travel documents guidance.
Three aircraft fly this route and each has its own page: a seaplane to Pig Beach, a small plane to Staniel Cay and a helicopter over the Exuma Cays. The choice right below this block shows you the difference in one look, and if you are still unsure, ask us: we quote them side by side for your date.
Plan Your Big Major Cay Charter
Choose Your Aircraft
Flights to Big Major Cay: Seaplane, Small Plane or Helicopter
Your island escape starts with the flight. Choose a seaplane, small plane or helicopter for a private journey to Big Major Cay with breathtaking ocean views. Tell us your travel dates, group size and what you’re bringing. We’ll help you find the perfect aircraft for your needs and preferences.
Seaplane
Fly privately to Big Major Cay by seaplane with exclusive water landings and direct waterfront access.
Small Plane
Fly privately to Big Major Cay on aircraft such as the Cessna Grand Caravan, Piper Aztec or Piper Navajo.
Helicopter
Fly privately to Big Major Cay on helicopters such as the Bell 407, Agusta 109 or Sikorsky S-76.
How It Works
How Private Charter Flights from Miami to Big Major Cay Work
Private charter flights from Miami to Big Major Cay follow the same six steps, whatever the aircraft. Here is what every one of them includes, from the first message to the moment the pigs swim out to meet you.
Plan Your Big Major Cay CharterDistance and Aircraft
225 Nautical Miles and Three Ways to Fly Them
Miami to Big Major Cay is about 225 nautical miles, across the Gulf Stream, over Andros and the bank and down into the Exuma Cays. How long it takes in the air depends on the aircraft and the entry stop on the way, and it comes back with the quote. Either way the flight is the part of the day you do not have to plan.
The Whole Aircraft
One Party on Board and No Seats Sold
Every flight on this page is a charter, so the cabin is yours and the departure time is the one you give us. That is the difference to a scheduled seat, and it holds for all three aircraft. A larger party simply flies a larger aircraft or a second one, and the party still travels on one booking.
Where Each One Lands
Water off Pig Beach, a Runway a Mile Away
A seaplane settles on the water off Pig Beach, at a spot agreed before the day. A small plane lands on the strip at Staniel Cay, a little over a mile away, and a boat covers the rest in five to ten minutes. Where the helicopter sets down nearby is agreed with the operator ahead of time.
Both Borders
Passports, the Manifest and an Entry Stop on the Way
Nothing in the Exuma Cays carries a customs desk, so every aircraft clears in first at a port of entry, Andros is the usual one, and flies the last leg after. Passengers carry a passport, children included. What counts as valid is in the travel documents guidance.
On Board and Ashore
Catering, a Boat and Occasions Set Up With the Flight
Whatever the day is for is organised before you leave: catering on board, a boat waiting at Staniel Cay, a table for lunch at the yacht club. A proposal or an anniversary is planned into the flight as a custom experience rather than around it.
How Long the Day Runs
A Long Day Trip or Several Nights in the Exumas
Many parties fly down in the morning and home the same evening, and the aircraft waits while you are out on the water. Staying longer on Staniel Cay is the same booking with a later return. Weather and delays is the only thing that moves the plan.
Departure Points
Departure Points for Private Flights to Big Major Cay from Miami
Where your flight leaves from follows the aircraft you pick and where your party is staying. These are the four fields we use around Miami for a flight to the islands. Select one to see exactly where it sits.
Miami Executive
Miami Executive Airport, TMB, Kendall
Kendall-Tamiami, a general aviation field in the south west of the county, and the easy start for a small plane or a helicopter. Parking sits close to the ramp, so the walk to the aircraft is short. Pick it when your party is staying south or west of downtown.
Opa-locka Executive
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, OPF
Opa-locka Executive in the north west, with private terminal handling for every aircraft on this page. Most flights to the islands are dispatched from here, and a return from the Bahamas can clear US customs in the same place. If nothing else decides it, this is where the day begins.
Miami International
Miami International Airport, MIA
Miami International as a pickup, for a party arriving on an airline that wants to go straight on to the island. Set up flight by flight and confirmed with the operator before the quote. Allow extra ground time, because a big commercial airport keeps its own pace.
Fort Lauderdale Executive
Fort Lauderdale Executive, FXE
Fort Lauderdale Executive, for a party staying in Broward or further north. It has its own federal inspection station, so a return from the islands can clear there too. The aircraft comes to you rather than you driving south to it.
How to Book
Book Miami to Big Major Cay Flights
Booking a flight takes four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Big Major Cay Charter- 01
Contact Us
Write to us on WhatsApp or by email. Send your dates, how many guests, where you are coming from and which aircraft you have in mind, or tell us you are not sure yet. Tell us the hour you would like to leave and whether you come back the same day. That is all we need to start.
- 02
Get the Options Back
We check what is free on your date and send the aircraft that fit your party, side by side: seats, bags, time in the air and the price of each. That is usually where the choice between water and runway makes itself: a calm morning and a party that wants to step straight onto Pig Beach point one way, a load of gear or a windy forecast the other.
- 03
Confirm and Pay
You pick the aircraft, and we fix the departure point, the entry stop and the landing site. Then everything around the flight: catering on board, the boat at Staniel Cay or ground transport on the island, flowers if the day is a special one. You approve it, you pay, and the boarding time comes back to you.
- 04
Be There 30 Minutes Before
There is no terminal queue on a charter. Arrive half an hour before the time we sent, walk to the aircraft with your bags and take off.
In the Exumas
Where Charter Flights Miami to Big Major Cay Put You Down
Where your flight puts you down near Big Major Cay depends on the aircraft. Floats end on the water off Pig Beach, wheels end on the runway at Staniel Cay a mile away, and from there everything in this corner of the Exumas is a short boat hop. Below is what waits at each end, and what a day out there can look like.
Plan Your Big Major Cay CharterSwimming Pigs at Pig Beach
The Reason to Go
The swimming pigs are why almost everyone flies here. They live wild on the beach of Big Major Cay, and when a boat comes in they wade out and swim to meet it in clear, shallow water. Nobody knows for certain how they got there. The story told most often has sailors leaving them ashore and never coming back, and no record settles it. What is certain is that they have made this uninhabited cay the best known beach in the Bahamas. Two things to know before the day: they are animals, not a show, so the boat crews decide how close everyone gets, and you bring no food of your own, because the crews carry what is right for the pigs.
Staniel Cay Airport for Runway Aircraft
Wheels DownThe small plane lands at Staniel Cay Airport, a paved strip of about 3,000 feet a little over a mile from Big Major Cay. It is the nearest runway to the pigs, and the airport most charter flights into this part of the Exumas use. It has no customs desk, so by the time you land here your party has already cleared in at the entry stop on the way down. From the apron a boat runs you across to Pig Beach in five to ten minutes. The details are on the small plane from Miami to Big Major Cay page. The aircraft stays parked there for your return. On a day trip that means the same short boat ride back in the afternoon and no check-in at all.
On the Water off Pig Beach
Floats Down
A seaplane skips the runway and the boat transfer. It lands on the water off Pig Beach, at a spot agreed before the day, and your party steps out where the pigs are. Like every aircraft on this route it clears in first at a port of entry and flies the last leg after. It is the closest way from Miami to the beach itself, and the details are on the seaplane from Miami to Big Major Cay page. The trade is the water. A seaplane needs a calm enough surface to land, so on a rough morning the Staniel Cay runway is the safer plan, and we tell you that before you book rather than on the day.
Staniel Cay, a Mile North
Where Lunch Is
Big Major Cay has nothing built on it, so the yacht club, the small shops, the fuel dock and the places to stay are all on Staniel Cay, a few minutes across by boat. That is where a day here is organised from: the boat for the pigs and the grotto, lunch at the yacht club, a golf cart to get around. What there is to do across the area is on the Big Major Cay destination page. If you want a table waiting when you land, add a fly and dine day, and anything unusual goes to custom requests. For a day trip, the pigs, the grotto and lunch fit between the morning flight and the evening one. Longer stays pick a room on Staniel Cay and keep the boat for the week.
Nurse Sharks at Compass Cay
Calm and Shallow
A short boat run north, nurse sharks gather around the marina dock on Compass Cay in water you can stand in. After the pigs, it is the stop people ask about most. Nurse sharks are slow bottom feeders with no interest in people, which is why families do this together. Anyone who would rather stay dry sees them just as well from the dock.
Thunderball Grotto
Snorkel at Slack Tide
Off Staniel Cay, a limestone cave sits in the water with holes in its roof that drop light onto the fish inside. It is named after the 1965 James Bond film that was shot there. The tide decides the swim in: at slack water near low tide the entrance is easy and the current is gone. Name it when you send your date and the boat is timed around it.
Flying Over the Exuma Cays
Seen From Above
The last minutes of the flight are the best part. After the deep blue of the Gulf Stream and the wide bank around Andros, the Exuma Cays come up as a chain of small islands in water every shade of turquoise. From a low flying aircraft you see the sandbars, the channels between the cays and the boats at anchor off Pig Beach. It is one of the reasons people ask for scenic flights on the approach. Ask the crew to come in low over the cays if the day allows, and have a camera ready on the side facing the beach.
Onward Through the Bahamas From the Exumas
Domestic After Entry
Big Major Cay also works as one stop of a longer trip. Once you have cleared in, every leg after it stays inside the Bahamas. The same charter can carry on to the rest of the Exumas, Nassau, Harbour Island, Andros or Bimini. That is how one island becomes island hopping or a Bahamas day. The ready-made version of a single day is the Big Major Cay getaway day trip, and the rest of the islands are on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Charter Flights to Big Major Cay from Miami?
Send your date, the number of guests and the aircraft you are leaning towards. You get back what is free, what each option costs and when it can leave, and nothing is booked until you say so.
Add-Ons
Charter Flight to Big Major Cay Add-Ons
Name the ones you want when you send your dates and they are priced together with the flight.
In Detail
Flights from Miami to Big Major Cay: What to Know Before You Fly
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind flights from Miami to Big Major Cay: what the crossing looks like, who sets the hour, who files the border and what people fly down to mark. Other flights to the Bahamas work the same way, most of them shorter.
Miami to Big Major Cay Charter Flights: Three Ways Down to the Exuma Cays
Gulf Stream, Andros and the Exuma bank seen from three different aircraft
This is a long crossing, and none of it is dead time. Leaving Miami the water goes from harbour green to the deep blue of the Gulf Stream, then Andros and its bank come up in a wide band of pale green, and at the far end the Exuma Cays string out in turquoise over white sand. How you see it depends on the aircraft. A seaplane and a helicopter stay low enough to read the channels between the cays, and the helicopter has glass on every side. A small plane gives everybody a window and lands a mile from the beach. The last minutes are the reason people ask for a window seat. The cays sit close together here, Staniel Cay, Big Major and the reefs around Thunderball Grotto, and on a clear morning the sandbars between them show as streaks of white in shallow water. That is why charter flights to Big Major Cay from Miami double as scenic flights for anybody sitting by a window. Boats at anchor off Pig Beach are often the first sign you are there, and nobody on board has to lean over a stranger to see them, because the whole cabin belongs to your party. An afternoon return shows the same cays in a lower light, so the way home is a second view, not a repeat.
Private Flights to Big Major Cay from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a charter flight to Big Major Cay
Private flights to Big Major Cay from Miami have no timetable. The day is built around the hour you name, not around a departure board. You pick the hour you want to lift off, the hour you want to be with the pigs and the one you want to be home, and the whole plan is built backwards from those three times. The aircraft is held for your party, so a change a few days before is a message to us. Half an hour before departure is the whole check-in. Your party walks from the car to the aircraft, the bags go on in front of you and the only names on the list are yours. The same freedom holds on the way back. If lunch at the yacht club runs long or the water at the grotto is too good to leave, the aircraft waits, and the hour home moves with you instead of a gate closing on you. A day trip and a long weekend in the Exumas are planned the same way: three times from you, one aircraft held for your party and nobody else's schedule anywhere in the day. An early departure puts you on Pig Beach before most boats arrive, and an evening return has you back in Miami for a late dinner. Every hour in between belongs to your party and to nobody else.
Miami to Big Major Cay Flights: The Crew Handles Both Borders
Passports are all your party carries on a Big Major Cay crossing
Miami to Big Major Cay flights cross an international border twice in one day, and that is the part that goes wrong when nobody prepares it. The Bahamas asks for a declaration filed from Florida, clearance at a port of entry on arrival and a US return filed before you head home. Nothing in the Exuma Cays carries a customs desk, so every aircraft on this page lands first at a port of entry such as Andros and flies the last leg after. The crew files all of it and plans the stop into the route. Your party carries a valid passport and nothing else, children included, per the travel documents guidance. What may travel is in the baggage guidance. A name added or dropped before the day is a message to us, and a departure moved by weather runs under the weather and delays policy. Coming home works the same way in reverse. The return is filed before you leave the cays, and the aircraft lands where the United States can clear you, which is part of the plan we send with the quote. None of this is paperwork your party fills in at a counter. The passport list is all we need from you, and we send it on with the filings before the day, so nothing waits for you at the desk. If a detail changes on the day, the crew updates the filing.
Charter Flights Miami to Big Major Cay: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day with the swimming pigs, a long weekend or something to celebrate
Most people who fly down mark something. Charter flights Miami to Big Major Cay are booked for a birthday, a proposal, an anniversary or a family trip the children talk about for years, and an hour on Pig Beach is a hard thing to top. Some parties fly down for the day and are home late, others stay a few nights on Staniel Cay and book the return for the day they want. The whole party travels together on one booking. If there is something to celebrate, say so when you book: catering, a private chef and flowers travel with you, set up before you board. The date comes first and the aircraft is planned around it, so a boat booked for the pigs, the grotto at slack tide or a dinner table decides when you fly, not the other way round. Tell us the occasion and the number of guests with your date, and the quote comes back with the aircraft, the hours and whatever you asked to have on board, ready for you to confirm with one reply.
Questions
Charter Flights to Big Major Cay from Miami: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Big Major Cay?
Big Major Cay is about 225 nautical miles southeast of Miami, in the Exuma Cays. The time in the air depends on the aircraft and on the entry stop the route needs on the way in, so it comes back with the quote for your date rather than as a number here.
What really sets the length of the day is the border on both sides and how long you want with the pigs. On a day trip most parties spend the middle of the day on the water, not in the air.
What is the best way to get to Big Major Cay?
It depends on how close you want to land and what you carry. A seaplane sets down on the water off Pig Beach, at a spot agreed before the day.
A small plane lands on the runway at Staniel Cay a mile away and handles more weight and rougher water, with a boat for the last few minutes. A helicopter sets down nearby, and where is agreed with the operator first. We quote the options side by side so you can compare them fairly.
Do I need a passport to fly to Big Major Cay?
Yes, every passenger needs one, children included. The Bahamas is another country, and a private aircraft does not change that. We take the passport details once when you enquire and file the manifest for both sides before departure. The travel documents page lists what each passenger sends and by when, including the cases that need more notice. Nothing else has to be printed or carried.
Can a plane land on Big Major Cay?
Not a plane on wheels. The cay has no runway and no pier, and nobody lives on it. The nearest strip is Staniel Cay Airport, a paved runway of about 3,000 feet a little over a mile away, and a boat crosses from there to Pig Beach in five to ten minutes.
A seaplane is the one aircraft that lands right off the beach, on the water, when the sea allows it.
Where do you clear customs on the way to Big Major Cay?
Not in the Exuma Cays: neither Big Major Cay nor Staniel Cay has a customs desk. Every aircraft lands first at a Bahamian port of entry, Andros is the usual one, clears there and flies the last leg after. The stop is planned into the route and the filings are ours, so for your party it is a short pause with passports in hand, not a second trip.
Can you take a day trip to Big Major Cay?
Yes. On a charter the aircraft waits for you, so the return is set by you and not by a timetable. Out early, a boat to the pigs, lunch on Staniel Cay and back in the evening, with both borders handled.
It is a full day, so many parties stay a night or two in the Exumas instead; tell us when you enquire and the return is planned for that day.
How much baggage can we take?
It is a question of weight, not of the number of bags, and it differs by aircraft. Floats carry less than wheels, and a helicopter less again.
Say what is coming when you enquire, including snorkel gear, rods, cameras and anything with a battery, and the answer comes back with the quote rather than at the aircraft. If the load decides it, the aircraft is chosen around what you bring, not the other way round.
Are the swimming pigs good for families?
Yes, it is one of the most family-friendly days in the Bahamas. The pigs swim out to the boats in shallow, clear water, and the nurse sharks at Compass Cay nearby are calm bottom feeders. Children need passports like everybody else.
Bring no food of your own for the pigs; the boat crews carry what is right for them. On a charter there is no terminal and no queue, which is what makes a long day work with small children.
Can we fly on to another island from Big Major Cay afterwards?
Yes. Once you have cleared into the Bahamas, every leg after it is domestic. The same aircraft can carry on to Great Exuma, Nassau, Eleuthera or back up the chain, as long as the next island has a place for it to land.
Tell us the shape of the whole trip when you enquire and it is quoted as one booking. Where the next stop only has water to land on, that leg switches to a seaplane.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day?
Every aircraft handles weather differently. A seaplane needs calm enough water to land off Pig Beach, and on a rough morning the Staniel Cay runway can be the plan instead.
If conditions are below what is safe, the crew moves or cancels the flight and the weather and delays policy says what that means for your booking. That call is always the crew's, and a delay of an hour or two often solves it.
Is a charter cheaper than a scheduled flight?
No, and it is not meant to be. There is no scheduled flight from Miami to Big Major Cay at all, and reaching Staniel Cay on scheduled seats usually means a connection and a lost day. A charter buys you the aircraft: your departure, your return, your party only, and the entry stop handled for you.
We send the price for the whole aircraft, so you can split it across your party and compare fairly. Tell us what matters most, the time with the pigs, the landing point or the budget, and we suggest the aircraft that fits it best.
Can I bring a pet on a charter flight?
Yes, pets travel in the cabin with you. The one thing we ask is that you tell us at the enquiry, with the type of animal and its weight, so the seating and the load plan are right from the start.
Next Step
Ready to Book Miami to Big Major Cay Charter Flights?
Send your date, the number of guests and where you are leaving from. You get back the aircraft that fit, the boarding time and what the whole day costs, before anything is booked.
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