Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Business takes off
Lauderdale airline adds planes, cities.
Travelers to Resorts World Bimini can avoid airport hassles while disembarking on the resort’s beach by flying Fort Lauderdale-based seaplane airline Tropic Ocean Airways.
The company, which runs charters and scheduled flights from South Florida to the Bahamas, even has a roundtrip fare as low as $250.
And while all of its scheduled flights leave full, the company says it’s buying four new Cessna Grand Caravan EX planes this year to provide travelers with more options and destinations.
Currently, the airline has a fleet of 11 aircraft and offers 35 weekly scheduled flights from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the Miami Seaplane Base on Watson Island to Bimini, Great Harbour Cay and Marsh Harbour.
It also offers charter flights on demand to just about anywhere in the Bahamas from nearly any airport — or body of water — in the region, spokesman Dominic Patrick said.
The airline flew about 20,000 passengers on its scheduled and charter flights in 2017, he said.
As the new planes are acquired throughout the year, the company plans to add scheduled flights to Nassau, Bahamas, and Key West, Patrick said. Delivery of the first new plane is expected in April, he said.
Obviously, charters won’t cost $250, and prices depend on flight times and destinations, but Patrick said the airline fills a need for travelers looking to have a unique flying experience and avoid the often time-consuming and pricey hassle of landing at a major airport and hailing a cab to their resorts.
Of its scheduled flights — the ones you can book for just yourself or with a companion — Bimini is the most popular, Patrick said. It’s a 25-minute flight from South Florida, and the only one of three regular destinations in which the airline lands on water.
“We fly directly to Resorts World, [a 750-acre resort and casino on North Bimini Island],” he said. “Going there on other airlines, you have to fly to the airport, then take a taxi, a ferry and another taxi, and that costs about $100 more. I’ve heard it’s miserable and takes a very long time.”
On flights to Great Harbour Bay and Marsh Harbour, the airline lands its planes on runways at private terminals, Patrick said.
Flights to and from Fort Lauderdale and Great Harbour Cay last 64 minutes, while each Marsh Harbour leg runs about 1 hour, 24 minutes, according to the airline’s website.
Bimini is the most affordable seat on the airline’s scheduled flights, costing about $250 for a round-trip ticket, Patrick said.
An eight-seat, roundtrip charter to Bimini is about $4,000, and that buys the ability to “leave whenever you want, with whomever you want, including the pets,” he said. The airline also flies directly to yachts.
Twenty-minute sightseeing flights are also available out of the Miami Seaport Base for $125 per passenger, according to the airline’s website.
The company debuted in 2009, taking over the Watson Island seaplane base that was built in 1926 and used until 2001 by the storied Chalk’s Ocean Airways. Chalk’s shifted its operations to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in 2001 and ceased flying in 2007, two years after a fatal crash near Miami Beach killed 20 people.