The Crossing
Small Plane Flights Miami to Berry Islands
The Berry Islands are about thirty islands and a hundred-odd cays in a thin arc, and exactly two of them have a runway. Great Harbour Cay carries 4,501 feet of asphalt at the north end and Chub Cay carries 5,000 feet at the south end. A small charter plane lands on either one on wheels, the same as it would at home.
Both of those airports are also border posts, which is the fact that makes this crossing unusually clean. On most private flights into the islands the aircraft has to touch down at a port of entry first and fly the last leg afterwards.
Here the port of entry is the destination. You land once. What that runs in block time depends on the aircraft and the departure point and it comes back with the quote.
The water on the way over is the other half of the reason people fly this route rather than take a boat. From the departure point in Miami out to the edge of the bank it is deep blue, and then it is not.
Everything between those two moments is ours: the aircraft, 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 Small Plane routes from the city. The cays in the chain that have no strip at all are reached by seaplane instead, which is a different aircraft and a different page.
Plan Your Berry Islands Charter
How It Works
How a Small Plane Charter Miami to Berry Islands Actually Works
The Berry Islands are a different country, so a day there is two border crossings in one afternoon. On this route both of them happen at an airport, so it stays simple. Nothing about the paperwork is yours except the passports.
The short version: you clear out of Florida, you land on one of the two strips, you clear in at the desk beside the apron and you are on the island.
Plan Your Berry Islands CharterThe Runways
Two runways in the chain are what make this work on wheels
The northern strip runs 13/31 and measures 4,501 feet of asphalt. The southern one runs 11/29 and measures 5,000. Both are a long way more than a small plane needs, both sit at sea level with water either side and neither has terrain to circle. A landing on either is an ordinary one, and which of the two you are going to is set out further down.
The Border
Customs sits at both Berry Islands airports, not somewhere on the way
Both strips in the chain are listed as airports of entry, which is the part that matters for a private flight. On a cay without one an aircraft has to touch down at a port of entry first and carry on afterwards.
Here it does not. You land where the desk is, the crew files the manifest before departure and the travel documents are checked in Florida rather than at the counter.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami is the quieter of the two borders
Outbound from Florida the filing is done for you and the aircraft departs from a general aviation ramp rather than a terminal. You arrive at the departure point close to the boarding time, not two hours before it.
Coming home is the step people forget: a return from the islands clears United States customs at a designated field and the crew plans the routing around that not around the shortest line.
Which End
The north strip and the south strip open different days
The two airports are about thirty-five miles apart with the whole chain between them, and which one you want is a question worth answering in the first message. The northern one is the settled island, the beaches and the one road.
The southern one is a marina beside deep water. Nobody drives between them, so the strip you land on is effectively the day you have booked, and both are described below.
Weather
Weather closes water before it closes a Berry Islands runway
A rough morning can make a water landing a bad idea while a paved strip is entirely unbothered, and this chain is exposed on the ocean side. That is the practical argument for wheels here in winter and it is the reason we quote both. What the aircraft needs on the day is a crew decision, taken against published minimums, never a preference.
The Block
The small plane waits, which is what makes a Berry Islands day trip a day trip
On a charter the airframe is yours for the block, so the return is set by you rather than by a timetable. This matters more here than on a busier island, because there is no evening service to fall back on. Guests who want a night tell us at the enquiry and the crew and the aircraft are planned around it.
Departure Points
Departure Points for Small Plane Flights to Berry Islands 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 Berry Islands
Chartering an aircraft is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Berry Islands 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, so say whether you want the north end or the south end. With a seaplane we can also collect you at a dock or a beach.
- 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 the marina. 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 Islands
Where a Miami to Berry Islands Small Plane Puts You Down
The aircraft puts you on one of the two paved strips in the chain, either Great Harbour Cay at the north end or Chub Cay at the south end. Everything below is reached from one of them, and which one decides most of the day.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, in the order the two strips open them up.
Plan Your Berry Islands CharterThe Great Harbour Cay Runway and the Border Desk
Where You Land, NorthThe strip runs 13/31 across the middle of Great Harbour Cay, 4,501 feet of asphalt at sea level with water at both ends. From the air the island looks far too thin to hold it and from the seat it is an ordinary landing, because a small plane needs a fraction of it.
It is an airport of entry, which is the fact that shapes this whole route. You clear where you land rather than somewhere along the way, and the formalities take minutes rather than an hour because the crew has filed everything before departure.
The desk keeps daytime hours, which is the one reason an early slot is worth more than a late one. Say at the enquiry if anyone is travelling on a passport other than a United States one, because that is the case worth flagging before the day rather than at the counter.
The Chub Cay Runway at the Deep Water End
Where You Land, South
Thirty-five miles south the chain ends at Chub Cay, and the strip there runs 11/29 with 5,000 feet of surface. It is the longer of the two and it carries the identifiers CCZ and MYBC. This one is an airport of entry as well, so the choice between the two is a question about the day rather than about the paperwork.
Both clear you in on arrival and both put the aircraft within a few minutes of the water. The marina sits beside it and the Tongue of the Ocean drops away a short run offshore, so almost every charter into this end is here for a boat rather than a beach.
Bullocks Harbour and the One Road
After the Apron
Great Harbour Cay is the largest island in the chain at about seven and a half miles long and two and a half wide, and the settlement on it is Bullocks Harbour, known locally as The Village. It is a short ride from the apron and it is the only place in the Berry Islands with anything resembling a high street.
There is no crowd at the strip and no queue for anything, which is the reason the arrival here feels unlike an island arrival usually does. Nothing on the island is far from anything else and a golf cart is the transport, walking the alternative. One can be waiting when you land through ground transport.
Sugar Beach and the Sand at the North End
Eight Miles of It
Almost the entire eastern side of Great Harbour Cay is beach, in one long unbroken run, and it is empty in a way that beaches this close to Florida usually are not.
Sugar Beach, Shelling Beach and Sand Dollar Hill are the names people use for the stretches of it. None of them has a facility on it, which is the point: you are brought here by a cart and left alone with it.
What there is to do once you are out on the island is the island's own subject rather than the flight's and the Berry Islands destination page covers it properly. Guests who want a table booked before they land add a fly and dine day and anything outside the usual list goes to custom requests.
Hoffman's Cay and the Blue Hole
A Boat From the North
A few cays south of Great Harbour Cay is Hoffman's Cay, and inland on it is an inland blue hole roughly six hundred feet across, walled in by rock with a ledge above the water on one side.
It has no strip, no dock and nobody living on it, so it is reached by boat from the north end and then a short walk up. That is the shape of most of this chain: you fly to the runway and the rest is water.
The Cruise Cays at the Top of the Chain
Seen From the Air
The two cays at the very north of the chain, Great Stirrup Cay and Little Stirrup Cay, are owned by cruise lines and closed to everybody else. You pass over them on the way in, piers and all.
It is worth knowing before you land, because the pictures of this chain that circulate are often of those two. What you are flying to is the opposite of them: the settled island with a runway on it, and about thirty islands beyond with nothing on them at all.
Rods, Tanks and Provisions on a Small Plane
What Wheels Carry
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. Rods, dive tanks, 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 runway and that is island logistics rather than a charter with extra bags.
Onward From the Berry Islands by Small Plane
Same Aircraft
The chain works as a first leg rather than the whole day, and clearing in here is what makes that easy: once you are through either desk, every leg after it is domestic. Nassau lies about sixty miles southeast and the same airframe carries on to Nassau, Grand Bahama, Harbour Island, Andros or Staniel Cay and the Exumas.
That is what turns one runway into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. Where the next stop has no strip of its own, that leg switches aircraft rather than cancelling the plan. The packaged version of a single day is the Berry Islands getaway day trip and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book a Small Plane Charter from Miami to Berry Islands?
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
Small Plane Flights to Berry Islands 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 Berry Islands: Great Harbour Cay, Chub Cay and the Border
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the two strips at the far end, the border desks that sit beside them, the water crossing and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Miami to Berry Islands by Small Plane: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Berry Islands 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 over the water. You leave Florida over deep blue, and then the Great Bahama Bank comes up underneath in bands of turquoise you can see the bottom through, and it stays that way for a long time. The chain itself is thin and broken, so the last few minutes are a running catalogue of small islands: sandbars drying out at low water, the dark circles of the blue holes on Hoffman's Cay, and the two cays at the very north end with cruise ship piers on them. Then the strip. 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 Berry Islands from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a small plane to Berry Islands
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 Berry Islands 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. Everything else is filed before departure; the travel documents page lists what we need and by when. 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 Berry Islands from Miami: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Berry Islands crossing
A small plane from Miami to Berry Islands crosses an international border twice in a day. 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. 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 Berry Islands: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Berry Islands
A private small plane from Miami to Berry Islands 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 Berry Islands charter is for. Three of the four sit well inside the county, which is the part that decides how early the morning starts: a field twenty minutes from the house is worth more than five minutes of flight time saved in the air. 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 Berry Islands: Questions Answered
Can a plane land in the Berry Islands?
Yes, at two places. Great Harbour Cay Airport has an asphalt runway of 4,501 feet, identifiers GHC and MYBG, at the north end of the chain. Chub Cay International has 5,000 feet, CCZ and MYBC, at the south end. Both are more than a small charter aircraft needs and both are border posts, so a private flight lands and clears in the same place.
Do I need a passport to fly to the Berry Islands?
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.
How long is the flight from Miami to the Berry Islands?
The chain sits roughly 150 miles east of Miami, with the north end a little closer than the south end. That is a short hop for this type of aircraft and the block time depends on the airframe and which field you leave from.
It is confirmed with the boarding time before you book. What sets the length of the day is the two borders and how long the aircraft waits for you.
Which airport should we fly into, Great Harbour Cay or Chub Cay?
It depends on the day you want. Great Harbour Cay is the largest island and the settled one, with Bullocks Harbour, the beaches and a marina at the north end.
Chub Cay is a marina and resort at the south end, next to the deep water that the fishing is built on. They are about thirty-five miles apart and nobody drives between them, so it is worth deciding at the enquiry.
Where does the flight land in the Berry Islands?
On the strip you chose, at either Great Harbour Cay or Chub Cay. Customs and immigration are at both, so you clear on arrival rather than somewhere on the way. From the apron it is a short ride to the settlement or the marina, and a golf cart or a car can be waiting when the propeller stops if it is arranged with the flight.
Can you take a day trip to the Berry Islands?
Easily, and it is one of the more common ways this route is flown. 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. Tell us at the enquiry if you would rather stay a night 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 different aircraft. Say what is coming at the enquiry, including rods, coolers and anything with a battery in it, and the answer comes back with the quote rather than at the ramp.
Is fishing the main reason people fly to the Berry Islands?
It is the most common one at the south end. Chub Cay sits beside the Tongue of the Ocean and is known as the billfish capital of the Bahamas, and tournament weekends fill whole aircraft. The north end is a different trip: beaches, a settlement and shallow water. Both are the same flight and the same borders, only a different strip.
Can we fly on to another island from the Berry Islands afterwards?
Yes. The same airframe carries on and because you have already cleared into the Bahamas on arrival, the onward legs are domestic. Nassau is about sixty miles southeast and the rest of the out islands open up from there. That makes the Berry Islands a natural first stop on a longer trip rather than only a destination. Tell us the shape of the trip and it is quoted as one movement.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day of the 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 on an exposed chain. 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 it cheaper than a scheduled flight?
No and it is not trying to be. Scheduled service into this chain is thin, which is a large part of why people charter here at all. Charter buys the block: your departure, your return, your party only, your load. On a day trip that usually means several more usable hours on the island, which is the comparison worth making rather than fare against fare.
What do we do once we are there?
That is the islands' own question rather than the flight's and the Berry Islands destination page covers it properly. In short: the beaches and the marina at Great Harbour Cay, the blue hole on Hoffman's Cay, the flats and the deep water off Chub Cay. Anything you want arranged before you land is set up with the flight.
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 Berry Islands?
Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. You get back the aircraft, the boarding time and what the whole day costs, before anything is booked.
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