Private Jet from Miami to Staniel Cay

Staniel Cay sits about two hundred and fifty miles southeast of Florida, halfway down the Exuma chain. The jet flies to Norman's Cay, customs is cleared there, and a small plane or a seaplane covers the last thirty three nautical miles.

The real figure is both flights plus the time on the ground between them, and the exact block time comes back with the quote rather than as a number on a web page.

Because the strip on Staniel Cay is too short for a jet. Norman's Cay, at the top of the chain, has a paved runway long enough for one and customs on the same field.

From there the last leg is a connecting flight on a small plane or a seaplane, which lands on Staniel Cay itself. Both legs are booked together, so nothing is left to arrange when you land.

Because the connection is where the day goes. No airline lands on Staniel Cay, so the usual way is a flight into Nassau and then a boat or a second aircraft, each on its own timetable. A charter flies high over the Stream to Norman's Cay, clears customs there and hands you to a connecting flight timed to the jet, with nobody else's schedule in between.

At Norman's Cay. A Bahamas flight has to make its first landing in the country at an airport of entry, and the jet lands on a field where customs and immigration sit.

Passports are seen there, the connecting flight carries on to Staniel Cay afterwards, and the crew does the talking. It is part of the routing that comes back with the quote, not something to sort out on the day.

Miami has several business airports rather than one, and the right one is whichever puts the least driving between your morning and the aircraft. An hour in traffic is an hour less at the grotto.

The same choice decides the return, because a flight home from the Exumas clears US customs where there is a federal inspection station. Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach work the same way and both have their own pages.

Yes, within daylight and within what the crew is allowed to fly. No airline flies to Staniel Cay, so there is no timetable to work around. You fix the hour when you confirm, and the connecting flight is set to it.

Moving it later is a message rather than a rebooking, and the hour home works the same way, which matters on a cay where the tide sets the grotto and the sandbars.

No. A charter carries the people you name and nobody else, on the jet and on the connecting flight. Nothing is assigned, nobody shares the cabin, and nothing leaves while half the group is still in the car park. The list can change close to the day as well: adding or dropping a name is paperwork on our side and not a rebooking on yours.

Yes, for every passenger including children. Staniel Cay is in the Bahamas, and the passports are checked at Norman's Cay on the way in. The details are taken once at the enquiry and filed for both sides before you go, and the travel documents page sets out what each passenger hands over and when. The same passports are shown again when the flight home clears US customs.

About thirty minutes. There is no terminal to walk through at the Miami end. You park, walk out to the aircraft and go, because the outbound filing was sent from our side well before you arrived. There is nothing to print and nothing to hand over at the steps.

Less often than on anything else we fly this route with, and over two hundred miles of open water that is the point of the aircraft. A jet works above the layer that keeps the rest of the fleet on the ground.

When the weather is bad enough to matter anyway, the day moves: we would rather rebook a flight than fly it badly, you are told as early as we know, and because the aircraft was held for your party it is a conversation rather than a wait for the next seat.

Yes, it is what most parties come for. The pigs live on Big Major Cay, a few minutes by boat from the Staniel Cay dock, and Thunderball Grotto is just off the shore.

Both fit into one trip out on the water, and the boat is booked to meet the connecting flight rather than found on the dock. Say at the enquiry that the pigs are the point, because the grotto works at slack water and that sets the hour.

Send the date, the headcount, the airport that suits your morning and the hour you would like to go. Back comes what is available, the price, the boarding time, the routing with the stop at Norman's Cay and the connecting flight in it, and everything included, and nothing is held until you say the word.

If the day has anything else in it, a boat to the pigs, a table at the yacht club or a picnic on a sandbar, say so at the same time and it comes back priced alongside the aircraft. The reply comes back the way you wrote, on WhatsApp or by email.

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.