Piper M600/SLS Charter

Range is a genuine strength here: with 1,658 nautical miles against the corridor's roughly 950, the M600/SLS flies New York to Miami nonstop in either direction with comfortable margin and full reserves — no fuel stop, and no need to trim payload to make the numbers work. It is one of the more relaxed single-engine turboprops on this route from a planning standpoint.

At a 274-knot cruise it covers Teterboro or Westchester down to Opa-locka or Fort Lauderdale Executive in roughly three and a half hours in the air. A single, modern PT6A turbine keeps fuel burn and running costs low, which is what makes the M600 such an economical private alternative to flying commercial for a small party.

The M600 is a compact aircraft and it is fair to be clear about that: the 12-foot-3 cabin seats four to five in a club layout, with a maximum of six occupants, and at 3-foot-11 it is not a stand-up cabin. It is best understood as a fast, private alternative to a handful of first-class tickets rather than a cabin to walk around in on the way south.

For that mission it excels — a pressurised, air-conditioned cabin with large windows, advanced Garmin avionics with Piper's safety automation, and turbine reliability, reaching the smaller regional fields at the New York and Florida ends thanks to its single-engine short-field manners.