The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Flamingo Cay by Private Charter
Flamingo Cay is an uninhabited cay in the Jumentos, the thin chain that runs south from the Exumas towards Ragged Island. A seaplane is the only way to arrive at it rather than near it. The cay lies about 336 statute miles from downtown Miami, roughly 292 nautical and almost every mile of that is open water.
There is no runway on Flamingo Cay, no dock, no settlement and no ferry. The nearest airstrip is on another island entirely. A float aircraft settles in the lee of the cay, in the same five to fifteen feet of water that boats anchor in. The day starts on the beach rather than at a terminal.
Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, the clearance stop on the way down, 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 the longer crossings we fly from a seaplane base in Miami and one of many seaplane routes out of the city. Most parties who come this far south build it as a stay on a boat or as one stop on a run down the chain.
Plan Your Flamingo Cay Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Flamingo Cay Actually Works
Flamingo Cay is in a different country and it is not a place you can arrive at from abroad. Both of those are solved before the aircraft moves, or they are the reason the day falls apart. The distance is the straightforward part.
Two governments want the passenger list in advance and the Bahamas wants the aircraft to land somewhere else first. 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 Flamingo Cay CharterDistance and Time
Three hundred and thirty six miles of open water and a seaplane decided to the leg
Downtown Miami to Flamingo Cay is roughly 336 statute miles, about 292 nautical, almost all of it water. On a leg that long the block time depends on which aircraft flies your date and on where the clearance stop goes, so it comes back with the boarding time rather than standing here as a promise.
The Whole Aircraft
The seaplane is chartered whole, so your party flies down together and comes home together
The aircraft stays with your party rather than turning around, which on an empty cay is the whole point: there is nothing there to wait in.
Water Landing
The floats land on the water at Flamingo Cay because there is no runway on it at all
The cay is uninhabited and carries no airstrip, no dock and no road. The anchorage on its west side holds five to fifteen feet over sand, which is where boats lie and where a float aircraft can work. The mechanics sit in the water landing guide. Each water landing site is approved in advance by the Bahamian civil aviation authority.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Flamingo Cay 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.
Clearing Into the Bahamas
Arriving by seaplane means clearing at a port of entry and Flamingo Cay is not one
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry. The customs list runs to thirty six ports and neither Flamingo Cay nor anything else in the Jumentos is on it. So the aircraft clears further north and flies the last leg afterwards.
The nearest port with officers stationed is George Town on Great Exuma, about 35 nautical miles up the chain, where the desk keeps daytime hours. Passports out, forms already filed from Florida and it is quick.
The Way Back
The way back from Flamingo Cay carries its own clock and it ends usually at 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.
On this route the clearance desk closes before the sun does, so in practice it is the desk that fixes your departure rather than the daylight. Both clocks move through the year, so the last useful departure comes with the quote.
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 an empty beach 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 Flamingo Cay
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 Flamingo Cay from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Flamingo 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 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 Cay
Where a Miami to Flamingo Cay Seaplane Puts You Down
Flamingo Cay is about two miles of rock and sand with nobody on it. The whole cay is the destination rather than a settlement on it, so a water landing here is not a convenience but the only sensible arrival.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between.
Plan Your Flamingo Cay CharterThe Sea Cave on the South Side
Most Asked For
The cave is what people come back talking about. It is cut into the south end of the cay at the waterline, the mouth is wide enough to take a tender in at low water and the floor inside is covered in conch shells.
Holes in the roof let daylight down onto the water, so the inside is lit rather than dark and the colour changes with the hour. It is a short run from the anchorage and it is the one thing on this cay that has to be timed: at high water the mouth closes up.
Nothing about it is organised. There is no guide, no ticket and no jetty, so a party that wants to see it needs its own tender in the water or a boat already meeting them. Say so when you send the date and it is arranged with the flight rather than found on arrival.
The Long White Beach
Where You Land
The beach on the north west side runs out of sight in powdery white sand and on most days there is nobody on it. Crews who have sailed the whole chain call it one of the prettiest in the Bahamas. The reason it stays that way is that almost nothing gets here.
The anchorage in front of it holds five to fifteen feet over sand and is approached from the north, giving the line of rocks on the west side a wide berth. That is where the floats go down, a few yards off the sand, which is as close as any arrival in the Bahamas gets to stepping straight onto a beach.
It is an open roadstead rather than a harbour, so it rolls when there is any north in the swell. That is the single thing that moves a day here. It is checked against your date rather than assumed.
Snorkelling off Flamingo Cay
Five to Fifteen Feet
The water around the cay runs five to fifteen feet over sand and hard coral, with gorgonians standing up out of it and a dense meadow of turtle grass between the heads. Two large rocks off the anchorage mark the best of it.
Visibility here is not a good day, it is the normal one: there is no river, no town and no traffic anywhere near this cay to put anything in the water. That is the whole argument for coming three hundred miles rather than stopping short.
There is no dive operation on the cay and no boat to hire, so gear travels with the party. Rods, masks and tanks all come out of the same payload the passengers do, so they are declared when you book rather than weighed at the dock.
The Trail and the Shrimp Ponds
A Short Walk
A path crosses the cay from the beach to the ponds on the far side, marked by flip-flops wedged into the rock by whoever came last. It is a walk of minutes rather than an expedition. It is the only path on the island.
The ponds at the end of it are full of small bright red shrimp, a cave-pool species that lives in exactly this kind of tidal hole and is uncommon enough to be worth the walk on its own. They are also the reason the cay carries the name it does: shrimp like these are what turn a flamingo pink in the first place.
There is no shade, no water and nothing to buy at either end of the path, so a day here is provisioned before it leaves Miami. Catering on board and a beach picnic are the two things almost every party adds.
The Flats and the Bonefish
Fishing Days
The Jumentos are a fishing address before they are anything else. They have the reputation they do because so few boats get down here. The flats either side of the chain hold bonefish and the deep water off the ocean side drops away within sight of the anchorage. That is why parties book bonefishing and flats access or a full fishing day by seaplane.
Rods and gear travel, within the payload for the aircraft on the day. There is no lodge and no guide waiting on this cay, so a fishing day here is either self-guided from your own tender or run off a boat that is already in the chain. Both are arranged before the flight rather than on the beach.
Where the Flamingos Actually Are
About the Name
The name is older than the bird count. Visitors have been landing here and remarking on the absence of flamingos for years. A party that flies down expecting a flock will be disappointed rather than delighted. What the ponds behind the beach do hold is the red shrimp the birds feed on, which is the likeliest reason the cay was named at all.
The large Bahamian flocks live far to the south east, on Great Inagua, which is a different crossing and a different day. It is worth saying plainly before anyone books around it. What this cay offers is an empty beach, a lit sea cave and water nobody has stirred up, not a bird colony.
The Jumentos Above and Below the Cay
Minutes North and South
Flamingo Cay sits partway down the Jumentos, the thin croissant of cays and rocks that curves south from the bottom of the Exumas towards Ragged Island. The chain runs well over a hundred miles and Ragged Island at the far end is the only settled island in the whole of it, with around fifty people on it.
North of Flamingo Cay the chain runs up towards Great Exuma and the Exumas, which is also where the clearance stop goes on the way down. Long Island lies off to the east across the sound. Almost nothing in between is inhabited, which is the point of the place and also the reason the aircraft stays with your party rather than going and coming back.
Onward Down the Chain by Seaplane
Same Aircraft
A private seaplane charter Miami to Flamingo Cay also works as one leg rather than the whole day. The same aircraft carries on to Ragged Island below it, or back up to Great Exuma, Long Island and the Exumas. That is what turns one cay 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 the beach. That is a yacht transfer and on a cay with no dock it is how a good number of these flights happen at all.
The full island guide sits on the Flamingo Cay destination page, the packaged version is the Flamingo Cay getaway day trip and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Flamingo Cay?
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 Flamingo Cay Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Flamingo Cay: Open Water, One Clearance Stop and No Runway at the End
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, the chain the cay sits in and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Flamingo Cay: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Flamingo Cay 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 cay lies about 336 statute miles from downtown Miami, roughly 292 nautical and almost every mile of that is open water. Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, the clearance stop on the way down, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before you leave Florida. The hold is yours too, so seaplanes in the fleet are matched to the load , which is what lets rods, dive gear and a tender travel on the same aircraft as the party. A seaplane is chartered whole, so the headcount sets the airframe rather than the fare. 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 Flamingo Cay from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Flamingo Cay
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 Flamingo Cay 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. A private seaplane is booked when the point is to be somewhere nobody else is. 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 Flamingo Cay Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Flamingo Cay crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Flamingo Cay 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 Flamingo Cay: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Flamingo Cay
A private seaplane from Miami to Flamingo Cay 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 Flamingo Cay 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 Flamingo Cay: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Flamingo Cay?
Flamingo Cay lies about 336 statute miles from downtown Miami, roughly 292 nautical, almost all of it open water. On a leg that long the block time depends on which aircraft flies your date and on where the clearance stop goes, so it comes back with the boarding time rather than standing here as a promise.
What sets the length of the day is the two border filings, the stop in between and how long the aircraft waits for you.
Can a seaplane land directly at Flamingo Cay?
Yes. It is the only aircraft that can. The cay is uninhabited and has no airstrip, so a runway arrival means landing on another island and continuing by boat. A float aircraft works the anchorage on the west side, five to fifteen feet over sand, which is the same water boats lie in. Each water landing site is approved in advance by the Bahamian civil aviation authority.
Do I need a passport to fly to Flamingo Cay?
Yes. Flamingo Cay 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.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Flamingo Cay?
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry. The customs list runs to thirty six ports and nothing in the Jumentos is on it, so the aircraft clears further north and flies the last leg afterwards.
The nearest port with officers stationed is George Town on Great Exuma, about 35 nautical miles up the chain. It keeps daytime hours. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance.
Is Flamingo Cay a day trip from Miami or an overnight?
That depends on your date rather than on a rule. Two hundred and ninety two nautical miles each way, a clearance stop on the way down and a daylight window that closes 30 minutes before sunset all have to fit the same day.
There is nowhere to stay on the cay, so an overnight means a boat. Most parties who come this far are joining one, so the flight is usually one leg of a longer stay.
How late can we fly back from Flamingo Cay 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. On this route the clearance desk closes earlier than the sun, so in practice the desk 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.
Are there flamingos on Flamingo Cay?
Not reliably. Visitors have been remarking on it for years. The cay carries the name and the ponds behind the beach hold the small red shrimp that give flamingos their colour, but the birds themselves are not resident in any number and a party that flies down expecting a flock will be disappointed.
The large Bahamian flocks are far to the south east on Great Inagua. What the cay does have is the beach, the cave and an anchorage with nobody in it.
Is this the same place as the Flamingo Cay lodge on Andros?
No. It is the most common mix-up on this name. There is a private fishing and shooting lodge on the west side of Andros that carries the same words in its name.
The cay on this page is in the Jumentos, roughly two hundred miles south east of it, uninhabited and with no lodge on it. If Andros is what you meant, say so when you send the date: it is a different crossing and a shorter one.
How many people can fly to Flamingo Cay 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 and fuel for a long leg are 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 or a tender to Flamingo Cay?
Rods, dive gear 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.
On a leg this long the fuel takes its share first. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.
What happens if the weather stops the Flamingo Cay flight?
Water operations depend on wind and sea state as well as visibility. An open anchorage on the ocean side of the Bahamas rolls in a north swell on a day that looks clear from Miami. The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest and 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.
What does a private seaplane charter from Miami to Flamingo Cay cost?
A charter is priced as a whole aircraft, not per seat, so the number moves with which aircraft flies your date, how many of you there are once bags are aboard and how long the aircraft waits at the cay.
The clearance stop counts too, because the route down is not a straight line. Tell us those and you get one all-in number before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside it rather than added at the end.
Can the seaplane take us on from Flamingo Cay to Ragged Island or the Exumas?
Yes. Flamingo Cay sits partway down a chain rather than at the end of one. The same aircraft carries on to Ragged Island below it or back up to Great Exuma, Long Island and the Exumas above it.
Say so when you send the date: a second leg changes the aircraft and the timing. For a yacht or another cay we pass the coordinates, the pilots decide whether they can put down there and a tender has to be in the water to collect you.
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 Flamingo Cay?
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 Flamingo Cay day costs.
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