The Crossing
Small Plane Flights Miami to Hawks Nest
Hawks Nest sits at the southwest end of Cat Island and it has its own paved strip, which is the whole reason this flight finishes where you are staying.
The strip carries the identifier MYCH, it belongs to the resort and marina it serves and it is the newest privately held runway in the Bahamas. A small charter plane lands there on wheels and the walk from the apron to the door is about three hundred feet.
Miami to Hawks Nest is two hundred and seventy two nautical miles of open water, and almost none of it has anything on it. You leave the Florida coast behind within a minute or two, cross the deep blue of the Gulf Stream, run down the length of the bank and finish over Exuma Sound.
The colour under the wing changes three or four times before Cat Island shows up ahead. What that runs in block time depends on the aircraft and the departure point and it comes back with the quote.
Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, the clearance landing on the way in, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before you leave Florida. Your party brings passports and a bag.
A small plane charter Miami to Hawks Nest is one of several Small Plane routes from the city. The same point of the island is also flown by seaplane, which puts down on the water instead of the strip and is a different aircraft and a different page.
Plan Your Hawks Nest Charter
How It Works
How a Small Plane Charter Miami to Hawks Nest Actually Works
Cat Island is a different country and Hawks Nest is a private strip rather than a border post, so a small plane from Miami touches down once on the way in and flies the last few minutes afterwards. Nothing about that stop is the guest's job except the passports.
Small plane flights to Hawks Nest from Miami all run in the same order. You clear out of Florida, the crew lands where the desk is, the formalities are worked while you stay with the aircraft, and you are on the strip at Hawks Nest a few minutes later.
Plan Your Hawks Nest CharterThe Strip
The runway at Hawks Nest belongs to the resort, not to a settlement
The runway is asphalt, it carries the identifier MYCH and it belongs to the resort and marina at the point rather than to a settlement.
The resort calls it the newest private strip in the Bahamas, with three thousand one hundred feet in approved use, which is a comfortable amount for this type. It sits at sea level on the southwest end of Cat Island, with nothing to circle and nothing to cross on the way in.
The Border
Hawks Nest is not a port of entry, so the small plane clears on the way in
The rule is that the first landing in the country happens at an airport of entry, and the Bahamian customs authority does not list Hawks Nest among them.
So the crew plans one touchdown at a field that is on the line anyway, New Bight on the same island about eleven nautical miles north or George Town on Great Exuma, and the last leg follows it. Which one is used is a crew decision on the day, and it is not a step you have to do anything about.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Hawks Nest 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.
The Last Mile
There is no last mile on a small plane flight to Hawks Nest
The strip and the accommodations are about three hundred feet apart, so the arrival is a walk rather than a transfer. That is the practical difference between this runway and the public one further up the island: from New Bight the same address is roughly a forty minute drive.
A cart or a car on the other side of the day is still arranged through ground transport if you want to see the rest of the island.
Weather
Weather closes water before it closes the Hawks Nest strip
A rough morning out here can make a water landing a bad idea while a paved strip is entirely unbothered. That is the practical argument for wheels on this crossing 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 at Hawks Nest, which is what makes a 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. Guests who want a night at the point tell us at the enquiry and the crew and the aircraft are planned around it. Nothing about the day is shared with anybody else's schedule.
Departure Points
Departure Points for Small Plane Flights to Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest
Chartering an aircraft is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Hawks Nest 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, and at Hawks Nest the airport is the property itself. With a seaplane the pickup can also be a marina, a hotel 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. What a small plane Miami to Hawks Nest costs on your date comes back in the same message.
- 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 Hawks Nest Small Plane Puts You Down
The aircraft puts you on the private strip at the southwest end of Cat Island, about three hundred feet from the accommodations and a short walk from the marina. Everything below is reached from there and most of it without a car.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, in the order they ask for it.
Plan Your Hawks Nest CharterThe Hawks Nest Strip and the Walk to the Door
Where You LandThe runway sits on the southwest point of Cat Island, asphalt, at sea level, with water on two sides of it. It carries the identifier MYCH and it belongs to the resort and marina rather than to a settlement, so there is no terminal building at the end of it.
The resort calls it the newest privately held strip in the Bahamas and puts about three thousand one hundred feet in approved use. That is a comfortable amount for a small plane on wheels and it is why the type flies this route at all.
From the seat it is an ordinary landing. From the apron it is about three hundred feet to the accommodations, so the arrival is a walk. That is the single fact that shapes a day here more than any other.
The Clearance Stop Before Hawks Nest
One Landing Extra
Hawks Nest is a private strip and not a border post, and the Bahamian rule is that the first landing in the country happens at an airport of entry. So an international arrival touches down once before it, and then flies the last few minutes.
The fields that lie on this line anyway are New Bight, on the same island about eleven nautical miles north, and George Town on Great Exuma a little further west. Which one is used is a crew decision on the day, taken on weather, hours and what the routing wants.
It is a short stop rather than an hour. The crew has filed everything before departure, you stay with the aircraft, and the only thing anybody asks you for is a passport. Nothing about it is the guest's job, and see the travel documents for what we need and by when.
The Drive You Skip by Landing at Hawks Nest
Forty Minutes
The public way onto Cat Island is New Bight, up the west shore, and from there the far southwest point is roughly a forty minute drive on island roads. That drive is the whole reason the strip at the point exists. A charter that lands on the strip removes it.
You are at the property when the propeller stops, with no transfer to arrange and nothing to wait for, which on a day trip is an hour of daylight rather than a convenience. Guests who want to see the rest of the island still take a car, and that is arranged with the flight through ground transport rather than found on arrival.
The Southwest End of Cat Island
The Quiet End
Cat Island is about a hundred and fifty square miles with roughly sixteen hundred people on it, and almost all of them live up the west shore. The southwest end, where the strip is, is the thinly settled part.
Port Howe is the nearest settlement of any size and the road up the island runs from there through the smaller ones to New Bight and on to Arthur's Town at the top.
It is a long island and a slow one, which is the point of it. What there is to see once you are out on it is the island's own subject rather than the flight's, and the Cat Island destination page covers it properly.
Rods, Tanks and a Cooler 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 and tackle, 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.
The Marina Beside the Hawks Nest Strip
Boats and Fuel
The marina sits in the creek beside the runway, which is unusual enough to be the reason a lot of these flights happen: the walk from the aircraft to a boat is measured in minutes.
That makes the strip useful to people who are not flying in for a holiday at all. Crew changes, a part for a boat, provisions before an owner arrives and anything else a marina needs at short notice come in on the same runway under island logistics and cargo flights.
The Flats and the Drop-Off Either Side of Hawks Nest
What Is Minutes AwayYou see both of them from the wing on the way in and they are the two reasons the point is where it is. The bank runs shallow and pale to the west, and Exuma Sound drops away dark within a short run to the south.
Because you land at the point rather than up the island, both are a short morning rather than a drive and a boat ride. Rods and gear come in on the same aircraft, and a longer version of the same idea is a flats fishing day.
Onward Across Exuma Sound by Small Plane
Same Aircraft
Hawks Nest works as the first leg rather than the whole trip, and clearing in on the way makes that easy: every leg after the border landing is domestic. The same airframe carries on across the Sound and back up the chain to Staniel Cay and the Exumas, Nassau, Harbour Island or Andros.
That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. Where the next island has no strip of its own, that leg switches aircraft rather than cancelling the plan. The packaged version of a single day is the Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest?
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 Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest: The Private Strip, the Border Stop and the Marina
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the strip at the far end, the one landing that happens before it, the water in between and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Miami to Hawks Nest by Small Plane: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Hawks Nest 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. The last part is the one nobody expects. The bank ends and Exuma Sound opens underneath, thousands of feet deep and a colour the shallows never get near, and Cat Island stands up out of it on the far side. The point at Hawks Nest is the first thing you see and the strip is on it. You leave the Florida coast behind within a minute or two, cross the deep blue of the Gulf Stream, run down the length of the bank and finish over Exuma Sound. 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 Hawks Nest from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a small plane to Hawks Nest
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 Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest from Miami: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Hawks Nest crossing
A small plane from Miami to Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Hawks Nest
A private small plane from Miami to Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest 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 Hawks Nest: Questions Answered
Can a plane land at Hawks Nest?
Yes. Hawks Nest has its own paved runway, identifier MYCH, at the southwest end of Cat Island. It is privately held by the resort and marina it serves, with about three thousand one hundred feet in approved use, which is comfortable for a small charter aircraft.
It is not a border post, so an international arrival clears at a port of entry first and flies the last few minutes afterwards.
Do I need a passport to fly to Hawks Nest?
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, such as a passport that is not a United States one.
How long is the flight from Miami to Hawks Nest?
The water is about two hundred and seventy nautical miles wide, which makes this one of the longer crossings we fly out of Miami and roughly the same distance as New Bight on the same island.
Block time depends on the aircraft and which field you leave from, and it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book. The clearance landing on the way in adds a short stop rather than an hour.
Where exactly is Hawks Nest?
At the southwest end of Cat Island, in the central Bahamas, on the point where the bank meets Exuma Sound. It is a resort and marina with its own airstrip rather than a settlement, so the runway, the docks and the accommodations sit together on the same piece of land. New Bight, the island's main airport and its port of entry, is about eleven nautical miles north.
How does customs work on a small plane flight to Hawks Nest?
Your first landing in the country has to be at an airport of entry, and Hawks Nest is not one.
So the crew plans one touchdown at a field that is on the route anyway, New Bight on the same island or George Town on Great Exuma, and the last leg follows it. The filings are ours on both sides. You carry passports and stay with the aircraft while it is worked.
Can you take a day trip to Hawks Nest?
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 a longer crossing than the near islands, so an early slot buys more hours at the far end. 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 to Hawks Nest?
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. This is where a runway earns its keep, because wheels carry what floats will not. Say what is coming at the enquiry, rods and anything with a battery included, and the answer comes back with the quote.
Is Hawks Nest good for fishing?
It is one of the reasons people fly here. The flats run along this end of Cat Island, and the drop into Exuma Sound is close enough offshore that the deep water is a short run rather than a morning.
The marina sits beside the strip, so the walk from the aircraft to a boat is short. Rods and tackle travel on the same airframe within the payload for the day.
Can we fly on to another island from Hawks Nest afterwards?
Yes. Once you have cleared into the Bahamas on the way in, every leg after that is domestic, which is what makes Hawks Nest a first stop rather than only a destination.
The same airframe carries on across Exuma Sound to the Exumas, Long Island or San Salvador, and back up the chain to Nassau. Tell us the shape of the trip at the enquiry and it is quoted as one movement.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day of the Hawks Nest 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 and on a crossing with this much open water in it.
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.
Is it cheaper than a scheduled flight?
No, and it is not trying to be. There is no scheduled service into Hawks Nest at all: the public route is a connection through Nassau into New Bight and then a drive of roughly forty minutes. Charter buys the block and lands you at the property. Your departure, your return, your party only, your load. On this route the comparison worth making is usable hours, not fare against fare.
What else is there to do on Cat Island?
That is the island's own question rather than the flight's, and the Cat Island destination page covers it properly. In short: the highest hill in the Bahamas with the stone hermitage on top of it, long empty beaches, the settlements strung up the west shore and the wall diving offshore. Anything you want arranged before you land is set up with the flight rather than on arrival.
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 Hawks Nest?
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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