The Crossing
Small Plane Flights Miami to Andros
Andros is the largest island in the Bahamas, and it is not one destination but three. North Andros, Mangrove Cay and South Andros are separated by open water, the island runs about a hundred miles from top to bottom and there are four paved airstrips spread along it. Which one you land on decides the day.
Three of those four have customs and immigration on the field itself. San Andros in the north, Andros Town at Fresh Creek in the middle and Congo Town in the south are all ports of entry, so on most of the island you clear where you land. Mangrove Cay is the exception, and that is worth knowing before you settle on a lodge.
Everything between the Florida coast and that apron is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before wheels come up. You bring passports and whatever is going in the back.
Andros is one of several Small Plane routes out of the city. Where an island in the chain has no strip at all, the same crossing goes on floats and there is a seaplane page for that. Andros is the opposite case: more usable runway than almost anywhere else we fly to.
Plan Your Andros Charter
How It Works
How a Small Plane Charter Miami to Andros Actually Works
Andros is a different country, so a day there is two border crossings. On this route both of them happen on a runway. Nothing about the filing is yours except the passports.
The short version: you clear out of Florida, you land on Andros at a field with a customs desk, you clear in beside the apron and you are on the island.
Plan Your Andros CharterThe Four Strips
Andros has four paved runways and the right one depends on your bed, not on the map
All four are asphalt and all four are long enough for this aircraft with a good deal to spare, which is not something the chain offers often.
Because the island runs about a hundred miles, landing at the wrong end of it is a long way from where you are sleeping, and that is why we ask where you are staying before we ask anything else. Each field and what sits around it is set out further down, and the island page covers what sits at each end.
The Border
Customs and immigration sit on the field you land on, not somewhere along the way
Three of the island's four fields are ports of entry in the Bahamian customs authority's own list, and the fourth clears through the one in the middle.
That is what matters for a private aircraft: you land where the desk is, the crew files the manifest before departure and the travel documents are handled in Florida rather than at a counter. That is why the traffic heading further east stops here first: Andros is where that whole corridor clears into the Bahamas.
Weather
A paved runway holds on the days when the water does not
A rough morning can rule out a water landing while asphalt is entirely unbothered, and that is the practical argument for wheels on this crossing through the winter. It is also the reason we quote both. What the aircraft needs on the day is a crew decision, taken against published minimums, never a preference, and you hear it before you leave rather than at the ramp.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami is the quieter of the two borders on this crossing
Outbound there is no terminal and no queue. The filing is done for you, the aircraft waits on a general aviation ramp and you walk out to it a few minutes before the crew is ready.
The border that catches people out is the one on the way home: a flight returning from the Bahamas has to clear United States customs at a field approved for it, and that shapes the return routing. Which field it is comes with the quote.
The Bights
Water runs through Andros in two places, so you cannot drive from one field to the next
Open water runs right through Andros in two places, so the north, the middle and the south are genuinely separate pieces of land. You cannot drive from one to the next. On a chartered aircraft that is a detail rather than an obstacle, because the aeroplane goes to the piece of the island you actually want instead of to the one with the best road.
The Block
The aircraft stays on Andros, which is what makes both a week at a lodge and a single day work
On a charter the airframe is held for your block rather than for a departure slot, so the return is set by you. Guests flying in for a week are dropped and collected on their own dates.
Guests who want the island for a day keep the aircraft there while they are out on the flats. Neither shape is shared with anybody else's timetable, and weather and delays is the only thing that moves either of them.
Departure Points
Departure Points for Small Plane Flights to Andros from Miami
A small plane uses short fields that a jet cannot, so the departure point is chosen for your ground time. These are the four we use around Miami. Select one to see exactly where it sits.
Miami Executive
Miami Executive Airport, TMB, Kendall
Kendall-Tamiami in the south west of the county and the field both small planes sit at, the land aircraft and the amphibian. A charter that starts here starts without a positioning leg, which is what decides an early morning on a same day return. It is also the shortest drive from the south and west of the county.
Opa-locka Executive
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, OPF
The executive airport north west of the city, with private terminal handling and the point most Bahamas day trips are dispatched from. It is also where a return from the islands clears US customs. That makes it the default on a Bahamas day unless the drive is against you.
Miami International
Miami International Airport, MIA
A pickup rather than a base, for a party already at MIA that wants the onward leg to leave from the same airport. Arranged per flight and confirmed with the operator before it is quoted. It costs ground time, because a commercial field moves on its own schedule.
Fort Lauderdale Executive
Fort Lauderdale Executive, FXE
Fort Lauderdale Executive, the Broward departure, with its own federal inspection station for the return from the islands. The usual choice when the group is north of Miami and the drive south would cost more time than the flight saves. The return clears there as readily as it does at Opa-locka.
How to Charter
Charter a Small Plane from Miami to Andros
Chartering an aircraft 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 small plane runs airport to airport. Your pickup can also be a marina, a hotel dock or a beach. With a seaplane we can collect you there.
- 02
Get Aircraft and Prices Back
We check what is free on your date and send the small planes 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 Small Plane Puts You Down
The aircraft puts you on one of four runways, and on an island this long that is not a detail. North Andros, Mangrove Cay and South Andros are separated by open water rather than by road, so the strip you land on is the part of the island you get.
What follows is what sits at each of them, and what the rest of the island is known for once you are down. The Andros destination page covers the island in its own right.
Plan Your Andros CharterAndros Town and the Fresh Creek Strip
Where Most Land
Andros Town International sits on Fresh Creek, halfway down the island, and it is the field most guests mean when they say Andros. The runway is asphalt, customs and immigration are on it, and the settlement, the creek and the lodges around it start within minutes of the apron. If you are not sure which end of the island your booking is on, this is usually the answer.
San Andros in the North
The Closest StripSan Andros serves Nicholls Town and the northern settlements, and it is the shortest hop of the four from Florida. It has customs on the field, so a flight going no further clears and stops there.
North Andros is the busiest third of the island in the sense that anywhere on Andros is busy, which is to say there is a road, a few settlements and a great deal of water.
Congo Town and South Andros
The Far End
Congo Town is the southern port of entry and the strip for South Andros, which is the emptiest part of an already empty island. It is also the end that is hardest to reach any other way, which is the whole argument for flying directly into it rather than landing at Fresh Creek and working south. The runway is asphalt and the longest of the four.
Mangrove Cay in the Middle of Andros
Cleared at Fresh Creek
Clarence A. Bain Airport serves Mangrove Cay, the island between the two bights. The runway takes this aircraft comfortably. What it does not have is a customs desk, so an arriving flight clears at Andros Town first and covers the last few miles afterwards. It is planned into the itinerary before you book, and it is the reason the lodge name matters at the enquiry.
The Bights That Cut Andros in Three
Why the Strip Matters
North and South Bight are channels of open water running straight through Andros, and they are why the island behaves like three. There is no driving between the pieces.
From the air it is the clearest thing about the place: land, then a band of pale water the whole width of the island, then land again. It is also the reason the choice of runway is the first question we ask.
The Blue Holes of Andros
More Than a Hundred and EightyAndros has the highest concentration of blue holes anywhere in the world, more than a hundred and eighty of them inland and along the shore, and from a small aircraft on the way in they read as dark circles punched through pale ground. Some are deep enough to dive and some are a swim off a track. They are the single thing the island is best known for.
The Andros Flats and the Bonefish
What the Lodges Are For
The creeks, flats and mangrove cays on the west side are the reason a good share of the traffic into Andros is carrying rod tubes. Guests booked into a lodge are usually on the water at first light, which is exactly the kind of start a chartered aircraft can be planned around. Flats fishing has its own page, and gear travels as weight rather than as luggage.
Onward from Andros to the Exumas and Nassau
Already Cleared In
Andros is where a great deal of the traffic heading further east clears into the Bahamas, so arriving here puts you at the front of that queue rather than in it. Once you are through the desk the onward legs are domestic, on the same airframe, whether that is island hopping down the chain or a single hop across to Nassau.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book a Small Plane Charter from Miami to Andros?
Send the departure point, the number of guests and which end of the island you are heading for. You get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the day costs, before anything is booked.
Add-Ons
Small Plane Flights to Andros Add-Ons
Tell us which of these you want when you send your dates and they go on the same quote as the flight.
In Detail
Small Plane Miami to Andros: The Four Airstrips and the Desk at Fresh Creek
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the four runways and how to choose between them, the border desk that sits beside three of them, what the crossing looks like from the cabin and what charter actually changes about a flight to the Bahamas.
Miami to Andros by Small Plane: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Andros small plane
The crossing is not dead time between two airports. A small plane crosses low enough to see what is under it, so the water is part of the day rather than something to sit through. A small aircraft flies low and slow: the Gulf Stream goes from navy to light, then the bank comes up turquoise. Andros is where that view is at its most extreme, because the barrier reef runs down the east side of the island and the sea floor falls away behind it into the Tongue of the Ocean, more than six thousand feet down. From the cabin the line between the two is a hard edge. The difference between two of these fields can be a few minutes in the air and forty on the road, which is the part that decides how early the morning starts. Every seat is a window seat on an aircraft this size, and the same is true of scenic flights of this size, so nobody watches the crossing over someone's shoulder. Other small plane routes from Miami fly the same way.
Small Plane to Andros from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a small plane to Andros
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 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. Where the flight clears back into the United States afterwards is the crew's question rather than yours. 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.
Small Plane Charter to Andros from Miami: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Andros crossing
A small plane from Miami to Andros 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. 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 None, 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.
Small Plane Miami Andros: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a long weekend or something to celebrate on Andros
A private small plane from Miami to Andros 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 small plane Miami Andros charter is for. A week booked at a lodge a year in advance, a birthday that wanted to be more than a restaurant, a family weekend where the point is that nobody spends a day getting there. Mangrove Cay is the exception, and that is worth knowing before you settle on a lodge. 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
Small Plane Charter Miami to Andros: Questions Answered
Can a plane land on Andros?
Yes, on any of four paved runways. San Andros serves the north, Andros Town at Fresh Creek the middle, Clarence A. Bain on Mangrove Cay and Congo Town the south.
All four are asphalt and all four are long enough for a small charter aircraft with room to spare. Andros is one of the few islands in the Bahamas where the question is which runway rather than whether there is one.
Which Andros airport is closest to my lodge?
That depends which end of the island you are on, and it is the first thing we ask. Andros runs about a hundred miles north to south and the three main parts of it are separated by water, so the nearest strip matters more here than almost anywhere else we fly.
Send the name of the lodge or the house with your dates and the field comes back with the quote.
Do I need a passport to fly to Andros?
Yes, for every passenger including children. The Bahamas is a different country and a private aircraft does not change that. We take the passport details once at the enquiry and file the manifest for both sides before departure. The travel documents page lists what each passenger hands over and by when, including the cases that need more notice than the rest.
Where does the Andros flight clear customs?
On the field you land on, in almost every case. San Andros, Andros Town and Congo Town are all listed as ports of entry by the Bahamian customs authority, so a private flight lands and clears in the same place. Mangrove Cay is the one exception: aircraft bound there clear at Andros Town first and fly the last short leg afterwards.
How long is the flight from Miami to Andros?
Long enough to be worth a window seat and short enough to be a day trip. The block time depends on the aircraft, on which Miami field you leave from and on which end of Andros you are going to, and it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book.
What actually sets the length of the day is not the flight, it is the two borders and how long the aircraft waits for you.
Can a small plane fly to Mangrove Cay?
Yes. Clarence A. Bain Airport has an asphalt runway and takes this aircraft without difficulty. The only difference is customs: Mangrove Cay has no desk of its own, so the flight clears at Andros Town on the way in and carries on afterwards. That is planned into the itinerary before you book rather than explained to you on the morning.
Can you take a day trip to Andros?
Yes, and on a charter the aircraft is held for your block, so the return is set by you rather than by a timetable. Out in the morning, back in the evening, with both borders handled either side.
It is the same arrangement that lets a fishing party leave before sunrise. Tell us at the enquiry if you would rather stay a night or a week and the aircraft is planned around that instead.
How much baggage can we take on a small plane?
It is a weight question rather than a bag count. A small aircraft trades payload against passengers and fuel, so four guests with dive tanks and four with overnight bags are two different aircraft. Say what is coming at the enquiry, including rods, clubs, coolers and anything with a battery in it, and the answer comes back with the quote rather than at the ramp.
Can we bring fishing rods and gear to Andros?
Yes, and it is one of the reasons this route is flown on wheels. Rod tubes, tackle, waders and a cooler go in the back as weight rather than as an awkward shape, which is easier on a runway than off a dock.
List what is coming when you send your dates. The same airframe carries freight and lodge supplies under island logistics if something larger has to travel.
Is Andros good for families?
It suits families who want water and space rather than a resort strip. The island is quiet, the flats are shallow and warm, and the blue holes and creeks are the sort of thing children remember. Everybody needs a passport, including children. On a private aircraft there is no terminal and no queue, which is usually the part that makes the difference with small ones.
Can we fly on from Andros to the Exumas or Nassau?
Yes. Once you have cleared into the Bahamas on Andros the onward legs are domestic, which is exactly why so much traffic heading further east stops here first. The same airframe carries on rather than anybody swapping aircraft. Tell us the shape of the whole trip at the enquiry and it is quoted as one movement instead of as separate flights.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day of the Andros flight?
A paved runway tolerates a great deal that a water landing does not, which is the main practical argument for this aircraft in winter. If conditions are genuinely below minimums the crew moves or stands down the flight, and the weather and delays policy says what that means for your booking. That call is the crew's, made against published limits, never a preference.
Is a small plane to Andros cheaper than a scheduled flight?
No, and it is not trying to be. A scheduled seat is cheaper because somebody else chose the time and the aircraft is shared, and to Andros it usually means connecting through Nassau. Charter buys the block: your departure, your return, your party only, your load, and a landing at the end of the island you actually want. That is the comparison worth making rather than fare against fare.
Can I bring a pet on a small plane 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 Small Plane Charter Miami to Andros?
Send the departure point, the number of guests, your dates and where on the island you are going. You get back the aircraft, the strip, the boarding time and what the whole day costs, before anything is booked.
- 24/7 support
- Fast response
- No obligation
Explore
