The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Andros Island by Private Charter
Andros is the largest island in the Bahamas and the least built on. It is also a port of entry, which on this crossing is the whole difference. Most flights into the southern Bahamas stop here to clear customs and carry on. On this one the stop is the destination.
The north end sits about 143 statute miles from downtown Miami, 124 nautical. Fresh Creek in the middle is about 167 and Congo Town in the south about 198. Those 55 miles between the ends are more water than the entire crossing to Bimini, so the arrival point is decided before the aircraft is.
Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before you leave Florida. Your party brings passports and a bag.
This is one of several seaplane routes out of the city and it leaves from the same seaplane base in Miami as the rest of them. The island is not one place but four arrival areas, cut apart by the bights that run through it: North Andros around San Andros, Central Andros at Fresh Creek and Andros Town, Mangrove Cay and South Andros down at Congo Town.
Plan Your Andros Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Andros Island Actually Works
Andros is a different country, so a day there is two border crossings in one day. Filed in advance it is paperwork. Left to the morning it is the reason an itinerary falls apart. The distance is the short part.
Two governments want the passenger list before the aircraft moves and both filings sit on our side of the desk rather than yours. What follows is the whole sequence in order, from the water at the Miami end to the ramp where the day finishes on the way home.
Plan Your Andros CharterDistance and Water
The north end and the south end of Andros are 55 miles apart
Downtown Miami to the north of the island is roughly 143 statute miles, 124 nautical. Fresh Creek in the middle is about 167 and Congo Town in the south about 198. The block time follows the departure point, the arrival area and the aircraft on your date, so it comes back with the boarding time rather than off a timetable.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies to Andros together and comes home together
The aircraft stays on the island rather than turning around, so six hours ashore means six hours.
Where the Aircraft Sets Down
Andros is four arrival areas rather than one island with one airport
North Andros, Central Andros, Mangrove Cay and South Andros are separated by the bights that cut the island apart and the three airfields on it sit at San Andros in the north, Fresh Creek in the middle and Congo Town in the south.
Two places that are both on Andros can need completely different arrival plans. A float aircraft can finish on the water at your end rather than at whichever airfield is nearest on a map. The mechanics of that sit in the water landing guide.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Andros means the manifest is filed before you reach the dock
Every passenger needs a valid passport, children included and a driving licence will not do. What counts as valid is in the travel documents guidance. Names and numbers go in from our side, in advance.
Arriving on Andros
Andros is a port of entry, so the clearance happens on arrival rather than en route
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Andros is one. That is the unusual part of this crossing: flights bound for the southern islands routinely stop here to clear and then fly on, so on a day that ends on Andros the clearance is the arrival. Passports out, forms already filed from Florida.
When the day ends somewhere that is not a port of entry, a lodge dock, a beach or a boat lying off, the aircraft clears first and flies the last leg afterwards. On an island with the ends 55 miles apart that leg is planned into the day rather than added to it, which is the reason the arrival area is asked for at the enquiry and not at the dock.
The Way Back
The way back from Andros carries its own clock and it ends at US customs in Opa-locka
Water landings run only from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so nothing on floats arrives in the dark and the return leg carries a deadline from the moment the date is set.
The Bahamian desk keeps daytime hours of its own and closes before the light does, so in practice the desk fixes the departure rather than the daylight. The two clocks together set the last useful departure for your date. Both move through the year. A return that would arrive after dark needs a lit runway rather than water.
The return is filed with US Customs before you leave and that filing decides where the aircraft may put down in South Florida. Opa-locka Executive is where a return from the islands clears, so a day that started on the water often finishes on a ramp. We take care of both ends of any chartered flight from Miami to the Bahamas.
Departure Points
Departure Points for a Seaplane Miami to Andros Island
A seaplane needs no airport at the Miami end, so the departure point follows your morning rather than the aircraft. Two of these four put you on the water, two on a ramp.
Miami Seaplane Base
555 NE 15th St, Miami
The water departure, on Biscayne Bay just north of downtown. Boarding is from the dock, so nothing between the car and the aircraft looks like an airport. The shortest ground leg for Brickell, downtown and the beach and the usual choice when a yacht is the other half of the day.
Opa-locka Executive
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, OPF
The executive airport north west of the city, with private terminal handling at both ends of the day. It is also where a return from the islands clears US customs, which is why an international day that leaves from the water often comes back here rather than to the dock it started from.
Miami Executive
Miami Executive Airport, TMB, Kendall
Kendall-Tamiami, in the south west of the county. When the aircraft for your date is already based at this field, the charter starts without a positioning leg. That matters most on a same day return, where an hour lost in Florida is an hour lost at the far end.
Miami International
Miami International Airport, MIA
A pickup rather than a base and the right one when the party is already landing at MIA and the onward leg should leave from the same airport. No aircraft is stationed here, so it is arranged per flight and confirmed with the operator before it is quoted.
How to Charter
How to Charter a Seaplane to Andros Island from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Andros Charter- 01
Contact Us
Write to us on WhatsApp or by email. Send your dates, how many guests, where you are coming from and where you want to travel. Tell us the hour you would like to leave. A seaplane lands on water and on runways. Your pickup can be a marina, a hotel dock or a beach, and an airport works just as well.
- 02
Get Aircraft and Prices Back
We check what is free on your date and send the seaplanes that fit. Seats, baggage and flight time for each one. Every aircraft costs a little differently, so we can find the best fit for you.
- 03
Confirm and Pay
You pick the aircraft, and we set the pickup point and the landing site. Then everything around the flight. Catering on board, a car or a golf cart waiting when you land, ground transport to your hotel or back to the airport. Flowers if the day is a special one. You approve it, you pay, and your boarding time, departure point and everything included come back to you.
- 04
Just Arrive 30 Minutes Early
You will have no terminal and no queue. Just make sure you are there 30 minutes before. Then you take off, land right at your destination, and enjoy the day.
On the Island
Where a Miami to Andros Island Seaplane Puts You Down
Andros is four arrival areas rather than one island, so the question here is never whether you can reach it. It is which part of it your day is about, because the north and the south are 55 miles apart with the bights in between.
What follows is what parties do with the hours in between, in the order they ask for it.
Plan Your Andros CharterThe Bonefish Flats
Most Asked For
This is what Andros is known for and it is not a close contest. The island is called the bonefish capital in the corridor's own language and the reason is the water behind it: shallow flats running for miles, cut by channels and bights that split the island into pieces. That geography is also why the arrival point matters more here than the flight does.
Guides work out of small boats through cuts that have no road beside them, so a party that lands at the wrong end spends the morning travelling rather than fishing. Parties book bonefishing and flats access for exactly that reason: it starts where the water is, not where the runway is.
Say how many are fishing when you send the date, because guides and skiffs are counted per head rather than per party. Tides decide the useful hours, so they move through the month and the return leg is planned against them rather than against a clock. A whole fishing day by seaplane is planned from the set-down point backwards.
The Blue Holes
Over Fifty
Andros is limestone the whole way down, riddled with underwater caves and blue holes and it carries the highest concentration of them anywhere. More than fifty are counted across the island, inland in the pine forest as well as offshore in the sea.
Not all of them ask for a tank. Many are shallow enough to snorkel or simply look into from the surface, which is the practical difference between this and a day built around a dive boat: a party with children in it is looking at the same water as the divers.
Say whether anyone is diving rather than snorkelling when you send the date. Access runs on guides and local operators rather than on opening hours, so it is worth naming before the day is fixed rather than after. Add water toys if the afternoon is meant to stay on the water.
The Barrier Reef on the East Coast
Snorkel and DiveA barrier reef runs 124 miles down the eastern side of the island, which is the second thing Andros is known for and the reason divers came here before anyone else did.
It sits close enough to shore that the reef and the flats are the same morning rather than two trips and from the air it is the whole picture: pale flats, blue channels, the reef line and then the drop. That view is the argument for arriving low and slow rather than at a terminal and it is why a scenic flight over this coast is sometimes the whole booking.
Boats and guides run from the settlements along the east coast, so the set-down point and the dive plan are decided together. A dock pickup covers the case where a boat is meeting you instead.
The Drop Beyond the Reef
Deep Water
Straight off that reef the sea floor falls away into water deep enough that Andros is named for it in the corridor's dive writing. The Crater off the coast is the site people mean when they say the wall here is a different order of thing from a reef dive.
The same edge is why the deep water fishing runs from this island as well as the flats. That is a full day on a boat rather than an afternoon, so it sets the return leg rather than fitting around it.
The flats and the deep water are opposite kinds of day, so a party that wants both is really asking for two rather than one long one. It is easier to say which at the enquiry stage than to move it afterwards: it changes the set-down point, not just the itinerary.
The Mangroves and the National Parks
On Foot and by Water
Mangrove wetlands cover huge stretches of the island, cut through by mazes of channels that open onto the flats and onto hidden beaches. Inland it is pine forest, with marked trails through the national park land in the north and centre of the island.
This is the part that earns Andros its name as the ecotourism island of the Bahamas: the Andros iguana lives here and so do well over 120 species of bird. It is walked, paddled or run by small boat rather than driven.
From the air the mangrove maze is the thing people photograph, so it tends to set the approach rather than the afternoon. A beach picnic on one of the beaches those channels open onto is nothing at all from the water and a long way from any airfield.
South Andros and Mangrove Cay
The Quiet End
South of the bights the island empties out further still. Mangrove Cay and South Andros are separate arrival areas with their own water and the southern flats are the ones anglers name first.
Congo Town in the south sits about 198 statute miles from Miami against 143 for the north of the island, so this is where the 55 mile spread stops being a number on a page. For a party staying down here it is the clearest case for finishing away from an airfield, which is what a resort transfer by seaplane is for.
Parties meeting a boat go straight alongside on a yacht transfer rather than driving to it, which on this part of the island can otherwise mean a road, a ferry and the rest of the morning.
The West Side
Remote Water
The west side faces away from everything. It is quiet flats, open water and remote coastal scenery, the part of Andros that anglers name when they want a day with nobody else on the water.
There is no road network worth the name out here, so the arrival is the whole logistics problem and a float aircraft is the answer to it rather than a convenience. This is the clearest example on the island of why two parties both going to Andros can need entirely different plans.
The Settlements and the Crab Festival
One Week in June
The settlements sit strung along the east coast, small and far apart and the island's own event is the crab festival every June: music, dancing and the blue crabs Andros is known for across the Bahamas. It is the one week of the year when the quietest large island in the country is not quiet, which matters for a date rather than for an itinerary.
The settled stretch of weather runs roughly December to April, so the festival and the best flying conditions are not the same season. Either way it is a day rather than an afternoon and it lands in the middle of the island, so it is worth naming when the date is chosen rather than after the arrival point is fixed.
Onward Across the Chain
Same Aircraft
A private seaplane charter Miami to Andros also works as the first leg rather than the whole day. Andros sits on the inside of the chain and the same aircraft carries on east and north to Nassau, Staniel Cay and the Exumas, Harbour Island or back across to Bimini.
That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. Overnight changes the baggage rather than the route. If a yacht is meeting you, the aircraft can set the party down alongside instead of at a pier. That is a yacht transfer and it is the reason a good number of these flights happen at all.
The full island guide sits on the Andros destination page and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Andros Island?
Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. You get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the day costs, before anything is booked.
Add-Ons
Seaplane to Andros Island Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Andros Island: The Crossing, the Border and an Island in Four Parts
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, which part of the island you finish on and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Andros Island: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Andros Island seaplane
The crossing is not dead time between two airports. A seaplane runs low and slow, so the water under the wing is the first thing the day gives you. The north end sits about 143 statute miles from downtown Miami, 124 nautical. The island is not one place but four arrival areas, cut apart by the bights that run through it: North Andros around San Andros, Central Andros at Fresh Creek and Andros Town, Mangrove Cay and South Andros down at Congo Town. The three airfields sit at San Andros in the north, Fresh Creek and Andros Town in the middle and Congo Town in the south and the bights cut the island into pieces between them. A chartered aircraft sits on Andros until your party is finished, so six hours ashore is six hours and why a tide that turns late is not a missed flight. Every seat is a window seat on seaplanes in the fleet of this size, so nobody watches the crossing over someone's shoulder. Other seaplane routes from Miami fly the same way.
Seaplane to Andros Island from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Andros Island
Nobody hands you a timetable on a charter. The day is built around the hour you name. You name the hour you want to lift off, the hour you want to be standing on Andros Island and which water in the city suits your morning. The aircraft belongs to your party for the day, so all three are your decision rather than a departure somebody else set, and a change the week before is a message to us. If the drive is shorter the other way, the same day runs out of Fort Lauderdale. Half an hour before the lift-off is the whole of the check-in. Your party walks from the car to the aircraft, the bags go on in front of you, and the list for that flight carries your names and nobody else's. Nothing about the morning waits on a stranger. Parties meeting a boat go alongside on a You choose the hour and the stay. And the crossing is a reason in itself. The windows are deep and the aircraft crosses low, so there is room for everybody to sit and watch the water change instead of taking turns at one of them.
Miami to Andros Island Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Andros Island crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Andros Island crosses an international border twice in a day. It is the part that goes wrong when nobody files it in advance. Entry into the Bahamas asks for a declaration filed from Florida, clearance at a port of entry on arrival and a US return filed before you leave, which is what sets where you may land coming home. On a Crown Air charter the crew files all three. Your party carries a valid passport and nothing else. Passports for everyone, children included, per the travel documents guidance. What may travel sits in the baggage guidance. That same filing sets where you land coming home: a return from the islands clears at Opa-locka Executive, so a day that began on the water finishes on a ramp and a departure moved by weather runs under the weather and delays policy. If the party changes before the flight, the crew refiles. A name added, a name dropped: that is a message to us rather than a problem for you.
Seaplane Miami Andros Island: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Andros Island
A private seaplane from Miami to Andros Island is booked when the day is worth marking: a birthday, a proposal, a graduation, a weekend away with the people who matter. The flight is short enough that the occasion, not the travelling, is what the day is about. That is what a seaplane Miami Andros Island charter is for. There is no terminal to walk through and no queue at either end, so the party stays together from the car to the cabin. The aircraft waits rather than turning around for its next departure, so an afternoon that runs long is simply an afternoon that runs long. Some parties fly over for the day and are home the same evening. Others stay on and book the return for the day they want. Both are the same charter, and the whole group travels together on one booking. If there is something to celebrate, say so when you book: catering, a private chef, premium beverages and flowers travel with you. Everything is in place before you board in Miami.
Questions
Seaplane from Miami to Andros Island: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Andros?
The north of the island lies roughly 143 statute miles from downtown Miami, 124 nautical. Fresh Creek in the middle is about 167 and Congo Town in the south about 198, so the answer moves with where on Andros you are going. The block time also follows which of the four Miami departure points you leave from and the aircraft flying your date, so it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book.
Do I need a passport to fly to Andros?
Yes. Andros is in the Bahamas, so this is an international flight and every passenger needs a valid passport, children and infants included. Full names and passport numbers go in when you book rather than at the dock, because both border filings are made in advance from our side. There is no check-in desk on this route and nothing to hand over at the slip.
Which part of Andros should we fly into?
It depends entirely on what the day is about, which is why we ask. Andros is not one compact island: North Andros, Central Andros, Mangrove Cay and South Andros are separated by the bights and the airfields sit at San Andros, Fresh Creek and Congo Town.
Two places both described as being on Andros can need completely different arrival plans. Say where you are staying or fishing and the arrival point comes back with the quote.
Where does a seaplane land on Andros?
That is part of the enquiry rather than fixed by a runway. The island has three airfields, in the north, the middle and the south and a very long coastline of shallow water behind it.
A float aircraft can finish at a creek mouth, off a beach or alongside a boat instead of at a terminal with a road transfer behind it. Name the end of the island your day is about and the set-down point comes back with the boarding time.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Andros?
Andros is a designated port of entry, which is unusual for an island this quiet and it is why so many flights heading further south clear here before carrying on.
On a day that ends on Andros the clearance is simply the arrival: passports out, forms already filed from Florida. If the day finishes somewhere that is not a port of entry, the aircraft clears first and flies the last leg afterwards. None of the paperwork is yours.
Can you do Andros as a day trip from Miami?
Yes and the clearance being on the island rather than en route is what makes it work. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting on Andros rather than turning around, so six hours ashore means six hours.
Both borders are filed in advance from our side and the clearance is planned into the hours the officers keep, so the day needs nothing on your list. Nothing about it is shared with anyone.
How late can we fly back from Andros on the same day?
A seaplane needs daylight on the water. Landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so the day has a hard end rather than an open one. The Bahamian desk keeps daytime hours of its own and closes before the light does, so in practice it is the desk that sets the return.
Both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest departure for your date comes with the quote. A return arriving after dark lands on a lit runway instead of on water.
How many people can fly to Andros on one charter?
The aircraft is chartered whole rather than sold by the seat, so your party travels together on one booking and comes home on the same aircraft. How many seats that is depends on which aircraft flies your date and on the payload once baggage is aboard, so it is confirmed with the quote rather than promised in advance. Send the headcount and say whether children are travelling: they count as passengers on an international manifest.
Can we bring rods, dive gear and coolers to Andros?
Yes and on this island it is the question that comes up first. Rods, fly gear, dive kit and hard cases all travel regularly, within the payload for the aircraft on the day.
The limit is a weight rather than a bag count, which is why bulky equipment is declared when you book rather than weighed at the dock: it comes out of the same payload the passengers do. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.
What happens if the weather stops the Andros flight?
Water operations depend on wind and sea state as well as visibility, so a departure can move on a day that looks clear from the beach. Summer afternoons move return legs more often than mornings and the settled stretch of the year runs roughly December to April.
The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest. You are told before you book how a moved departure is handled. Because the aircraft carries only your party a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you.
Can we fly straight to a lodge or a beach on Andros?
Often yes and that is the reason to send the property rather than the island. What decides it is the water at the far end, the tide, the clearance and the operator review on the day, so the honest answer is that it is checked for your date rather than promised on a page.
Where a direct set-down is not the right call, the aircraft goes to the nearest airfield and the last stretch runs by boat or road, arranged with the flight rather than left to you.
Can you fly to Andros from Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach instead?
Yes. All the South Florida departure points reach Andros and the difference between them is worth very little once the drive is counted. The right departure point is the one closest to where you are staying, not the one closest to the island. Say where the morning starts and the answer comes back with it already chosen, together with the boarding time.
What does a private seaplane charter from Miami to Andros cost?
A charter is priced as a whole aircraft, not per seat, so the number moves with three things: which aircraft flies your date, how many of you there are once bags are aboard and how long the aircraft waits on the island.
Where on Andros you are going moves it as well, because the ends are 55 miles apart. Tell us those and you get one all-in number before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside that number rather than added at the end.
Can I bring a pet on a seaplane charter?
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 a Seaplane Charter Miami to Andros Island?
Send the departure point, the party size and from when to when. Nothing else needs planning: you get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the Andros day costs.
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