Private Jet from Miami to Pig Island

About 259 statute miles separate the city from the anchorage, roughly 225 nautical, and the jet covers most of it before the short hop down the chain.

We put the block time in the quote instead of on a web page, because it depends on the aircraft and the field you leave from. What shapes the trip is how little of the day the flying takes, which leaves the afternoon on the beach open to you.

It cannot, and nothing else can either. Big Major Cay is uninhabited, with no runway and no pier, and the strip on Staniel Cay next door is too short for a charter jet. The aircraft therefore stops at Norman's Cay, and a short hop and a boat finish the journey. You book one thing, not three, and all of it is settled in Florida.

A small plane or a seaplane covers about 33 nautical miles south to Staniel Cay, and from there a boat crosses 1.28 miles to Pig Beach in five to ten minutes. Both are held for your aircraft rather than run to a published departure, so the pilot and the skipper know which landing they are waiting on and a late flight changes nothing for you.

Because the long stretch of water before the Exumas is the part that goes wrong. The Stream builds cloud and squalls along that line from the middle of the day, and on a crossing this long that is what pushes trips into tomorrow.

A jet sits above the layer at one altitude and passes over it. Norman's Cay helps too: 4,701 feet of asphalt and a customs desk on the field mean one stop does both jobs. Certainty about the first link is the point, because the hop and the boat are timed from it.

An afternoon of boat stops within twenty minutes of the beach. Compass Cay has nurse sharks in the shallows at its marina dock, Thunderball Grotto beside Staniel Cay is a snorkelling cave entered around low water, and Bitter Guana Cay has rock iguanas out on its sand.

North of the anchorage the sandbars of Pipe Creek dry out at low tide. Tell us which of those the day is built around.

Miami has several business airports rather than one, and the right one is the shortest drive from where your morning starts. The executive field north west of the city is the usual departure and also where a return from the islands clears US customs.

Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach work as well and have their own pages. Tell us where the party is staying and the airport is chosen around that rather than the other way round.

Within daylight and the crew's duty limits, the hour is yours. Here it matters more than usual, because a hop and a boat follow the jet, and because the beach is quietest before the day boats arrive and after they leave.

You fix the time at booking and can still move it afterwards: the aircraft has nowhere else to be and carries nobody else, and the boat at the far end moves with it.

Never. The passengers you name are the whole manifest. No seat numbers, no strangers across the aisle, no aircraft leaving while part of your group is still parking. Names can be added or dropped close to the day, which costs us a refiling and costs you a message.

Everyone does, children included. The Bahamas is another country however you arrive. We collect the details once when you enquire and file both directions before departure. Clearance happens on landing at Norman's Cay, so the hop down to Staniel Cay counts as domestic travel. The travel documents page sets out what each passenger provides and by when.

Often, yes. The jet is quick, the hop and the boat are short, and because the return hour stays open while you are still on the beach, you are not counting backwards from a last departure the way scheduled travel forces you to. Parties who would rather not rush stay on Staniel Cay or aboard a boat and fly home on a day of their choosing.

It interferes less with the jet than with anything else that flies this water, which is the argument for the aircraft. The jet works above the layer that keeps others down.

The hop down the chain and the boat are the weather sensitive links, so on a rough afternoon that part is what gets moved, and you hear it as soon as we do. Since the aircraft was held for your party, a change is a conversation rather than a scramble for the next free seat.

Yes. They live on the cay and come down to the beach every day of the year, wild rather than farmed, around twenty adults with piglets besides. What changes is the crowd: the anchorage fills from the middle of the morning when the day boats arrive and thins again through the afternoon, which is why the hour you land is worth choosing.

That follows from the aircraft and from what the group is bringing, so it belongs in the quote and not ahead of it.

Give us the headcount and the bags when you enquire and you will see what is free on your date, what each type takes and what each one costs. Since the price is for the airframe, the figure per head drops as the party grows.

Send the date, the headcount, the field that suits your morning and the hour you have in mind. Say as well whether the day is the pigs alone or Compass Cay and the grotto too, since that decides how long the boat is held.

Back come the availability, the price, the boarding time and the full list of what is included. Nothing is held until you confirm.

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.