Rock Sound International Airport is an airport in the South Eleuthera district of

The Bahamas The Bahamas, officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic and island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the Atlantic Ocean. It contains 97 per cent of the archipelago's land area and 88 per cent of ...

. Its name comes from the former district of Rock Sound.

Airlines and destinations

Historically, Rock Sound was served by

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and more commonly known as Pan Am, was an airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States for ...

beginning the mid-1960s with

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

and

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

jetliner service to Miami and New York

JFK Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport is a major international airport serving New York City and its metropolitan area. JFK Airport is located on the southwestern shore of Long Island, in Queens, New York City, bordering Jamaica Bay. It is t ...

via an intermediate stop in Nassau. The airport is one of the very few in The Bahamas to have received such mainline jet service. In addition, in 1979,

Air Florida Air Florida was an American low-cost carrier that operated under its own brand from 1972 to 1984. During the period from 1972 to 1978 Air Florida was an intrastate airline. Until a high-profile 1982 aircraft crash in Washington DC, Air Florida ...

was serving the airport with

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

jetliners with nonstop flights to and from Miami. As of February 1, 1979, Air Florida also offered connecting flight services from Rock Sound via Miami to: Jacksonville, Key West and Marathon, Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Pensacola, Philadelphia Tallahassee, Tampa, Washington (Dulles), and West Palm Beach. During that same period, connecting flights were offered to Rock Sound via Miami from: Gainesville, Jacksonville, Key West, Marathon, Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, Orlando, Pensacola, Philadelphia ''(refer to reference #3)'', Tallahassee, Tampa ''(refer to reference #4)'', Washington (Dulles), West Palm Beach. According to the

Official Airline Guide OAG is a global travel data provider with headquarters in the UK. The company was founded in 1929 and operates in the United States, Singapore, Japan, Lithuania and China. It has a large network of flight information data including schedules, ...

(OAG), in 1978 Air Florida was operating direct, one stop no change of plane

Douglas DC-9 The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 is an American five-abreast, single-aisle aircraft designed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. It was initially produced as the Douglas DC-9 prior to August 1967, after which point the company had merged with McDonnell ...

jet flights into Rock Sound from both Miami and Ft. Lauderdale with both services making an intermediate stop in Nassau. This same 1978 OAG also lists

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric, English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane ...

BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...

jet service operated by

Bahamasair Bahamasair Holdings Limited, operating as Bahamasair (stylised: bahamasaır), is the flag carrier of The Bahamas. Headquartered in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, the airline operates scheduled services to 32 domestic and regional destinat ...

direct from Miami via a stop in Governor's Harbour, Bahamas as well as nonstop BAC One-Eleven service from Nassau. This wide availability, presumably, solidified Rock Sound early on as a tourist stop for anyone vacationing in the Bahamas, despite the small size of the town of Rock Sound itself.

Lauda Air Italy Lauda Air S.p.A. was an Italian leisure charter airline headquartered in Milan and based at Milan Malpensa Airport.Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

for a brief period in 2001.

References

Airports in the Bahamas Eleuthera {{Bahamas-struct-stub