With its colourful and varied airlines, the Bahamas is also home to rare aircraft types still in daily scheduled service. Bernd Sturm reports on his experience island-hopping across turquoise waters.

Just 50 miles off the US east coast lies the vast island archipelago of the Bahamas. While well established on the tourist map with dozens of flights arriving from the US and Canada each week, it seems to be overlooked by aviation enthusiasts – unusually as the Bahamas offer a wealth of small, colourful airlines and increasingly rare aircraft types. The hefty ticket price aside, it seems that this is due in part to the scarce information available about the nation’s aviation scene. Airline websites are often unavailable, outdated or don’t provide information about aircraft types in use, so a visit requires a lot of research in advance.