Small Plane from Miami to Bahamas

This is where the country starts. South Bimini carries 5,430 feet of asphalt about fifty nautical miles off the Florida coast, which makes it the shortest international crossing flown out of Miami, and the border desk sits in the one terminal building beside the apron. Chub Cay, at the southern tip of the Berry Islands, is the other short one: 5,000 feet of strip about 133 nautical miles out and its own desk again. Between them they cover almost every request that begins with the words day trip. Both islands need a short hop at the end, a taxi and a ferry across to Alice Town on Bimini and a few minutes of road on Chub Cay. Neither is far enough out to eat into the day.

Grand Bahama International at Freeport is the closest full-size field in the country, 11,020 feet of asphalt on an island that sits roughly fifty-five miles east of the Florida shore. A runway that long is more than any small plane will ever use, and that is the point: nothing about the arrival is marginal, the field handles traffic all year and customs and immigration are on site. It is the northern anchor of the chain and the one most first crossings from Miami are quoted against. The island itself is long, so the drive from the apron depends on which end you are staying at. Grand Bahama and Freeport each have their own page, and a car at the strip is arranged with the flight.

Great Abaco has two runways thirty miles apart. Marsh Harbour runs 6,100 feet of asphalt across the flat ground at the edge of town and Treasure Cay has 7,001 further north, and both hold a border desk. Which one the aircraft uses is a question of where you sleep rather than of aircraft performance. Marsh Harbour is the working centre of the island and the ferry dock for Elbow Cay and Hope Town. Treasure Cay puts you at the north end and at the boat across to Green Turtle Cay. From Miami this is roughly a hundred and sixty to two hundred miles, so it works as a long day and rather better as a weekend. The Abacos, Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay are each written up on their own.

Lynden Pindling International has two asphalt runways, 14/32 at 11,017 feet and a second of 8,323, and it is open around the clock. Nassau sits just over 160 nautical miles from the Miami waterfront. The hours are the part that matters on a charter. Most Bahamian fields keep daytime opening, so a dinner on the island and a night flight home is a question of which airport you are leaving from. Nassau is the one that never closes, which is also why it turns up so often in the middle of a longer routing. The resort strip is on Paradise Island over the bridge, the old harbour front and the beaches are on New Providence itself, and the island page covers what is there. The flight is on the Nassau route page.

Eleuthera is a hundred miles of island a mile or two wide, and it has three strips: North Eleuthera with 6,020 feet at the top, Governor's Harbour with 8,025 in the middle and Rock Sound with 7,215 in the south. The charter uses whichever one is nearest to where you are actually going, which on a long thin island saves more time than any amount of speed in the air. From Miami the crossing is around two hundred and fifty miles. North Eleuthera is also the way in to the two small islands off the top. Harbour Island and its pink sand are a five minute boat from the dock, Spanish Wells is a similar hop the other way, and Eleuthera itself has its own page.

Exuma International sits at Moss Town with 7,051 feet of asphalt, a few minutes from George Town, about 276 nautical miles from Miami. That is the far end of a comfortable day and the natural base for the southern cays. Halfway up the chain, Staniel Cay has 3,031 feet of its own, which is short by any other standard and generous for this aircraft. Landing there instead of George Town saves an hour of boat, and the swimming pigs at Big Major Cay are a few minutes from the dock. The cays in between are the reason people come back: clear water on both sides, sandbars that dry out at low tide and anchorages with nothing on them. The flights are on the Exuma and Staniel Cay pages, and the cays without a strip are flown by seaplane.

Andros is the largest island in the country and the least built on, with three separate airfields down its length and the third longest barrier reef in the world off its east coast. It is the bonefishing island and the flight is short, around a hundred and thirty miles. Further out the legs get longer. Cat Island has 5,049 feet at New Bight, Long Island has two strips of just under 4,000 feet at Stella Maris and Deadman's Cay, and San Salvador has 7,999 out on its own in the Atlantic. Several hold their own border desk, and where a strip does not the clearance stop is arranged by the crew. These are the islands where a charter stops being a convenience and starts being the only sensible way to arrive. Andros, Cat Island, Long Island and San Salvador each have a page of their own.

This is the part of the day a runway changes most. Load on a small aircraft is a weight question rather than a bag count, and a wheeled airframe has more of it to give than floats do. Golf clubs, dive tanks, rods, a cooler for the boat, a case of something for the house: all of it travels, within the payload for the aircraft on the day. Say what is coming at the enquiry rather than at the ramp and see the baggage guidance for how the trade between passengers and weight actually works. Anything larger than luggage is a different service on the same runways, and that is island logistics rather than a charter with extra bags. Provisions, boat parts and building material move the same way, to the same strips.