Africa’s business class

South Africa’s picturesque Southern Cape is home to some of the most spectacular and diverse scenery anywhere in the Dark Continent. Perfectly sited to capitalize on the area’s scenic splendor is Pezula Aviation – a company dedicated to serving the luxurious Pezula Lodge and adjoining Pezula Estate.

South Africa’s Pezula Aviation is a unique and fascinating operation in almost every respect. When Fanie Jordaan joined the Pezula Group in February 2004, it was as the chief pilot of Pezula Aviation, which didn’t yet exist and it was Fanie’s job to create it completely from the ground up. Impressively for a start-up company, the operation was fully operational as a commercial enterprise within six months – testament to Fanie’s abilities as an administrator as well as a top-notch pilot With money being no object to Pezula in establishing the highest quality aviation business, this meant there were no impediments to safety and thus the South African CAA had no difficulty in approving the fledgling company’s air service certificate quickly, with provision for operating two helicopters as well as the owner’s Hawker 800 jet.
Although its commercial air service certificate allows it to undertake commercial and charter work, Pezula Aviation came into being purely to provide service to customers and clients of the Pezula Group. At the time of Pezula Aviation’s inception, the Pezula Group was in the process of launching the Pezula Estate – a major luxury development on land around the beautiful resort town of Knysna, located on South Africa’s scenic South Cape around 60 km east of the town of George.
In addition to uncompromising quality, the other critical aspect of Pezula’s philosophy is environmental awareness; the company won an environmental award for its approach and had a full-time ecologist employed throughout the estate’s development phase.

Crowned by the Pezula Lodge – a peerless luxury hotel complex – the Pezula Estate sits on land bordering a newly established national park. As part of his approval to develop the estate, Pezula’s owner agreed to the massive undertaking of removing a million and a half unwanted exotic tress that covered the land. He was then able to subdivide the land – landscaped and replanted in beautiful indigenous trees and plants for luxury housing development.
The primary task for the new Pezula Aviation with its new Eurocopter EC120 was to provide a marketing tool for the estate’s sales team, by enabling it to show prospective buyers the estate and its surroundings from the air. The helicopter proved predictably popular with buyers and its “wow!” factor was undoubtedly instrumental in the eventual success of many of the estate’s land sales.

In addition to the estate’s marketing effort, the EC120 also serviced the adjoining Pezula Lodge, providing transfer flights from George Airport for many of the lodge’s guests. While the economical EC120 was the perfect vehicle for the marketing flights with its comfortable, modern and quiet cabin with excellent visibility for passengers, it was less suitable as a transfer vehicle for lodge guests and their bags.

As the need for the sales and marketing of the estate’s properties reduced, the demand for lodge transfer flights and occasional charters began increasing. The little EC120 flew 630 hours in just under two years, but with only four passenger seats and limited luggage space, it was clearly unsuitable for the role it was increasingly called upon to perform and it was quickly realized that it would have to be replaced with a bigger machine.
There was never any doubt that whatever replaced the 120 would have to be a significant improvement to justify the expense. In consultation with Pezula’s owner, Fanie put a lot of thought into choosing the right machine. Initially, they considered a twin – for the desirability of all-weather IFR as much as increased space. However, it soon became apparent that none of the realistic candidates met their requirements. Neither the EC135 nor the Agusta A109 had sufficient IFR range with payload to undertake the two-hour flights they envisaged, and bigger, longer-legged machines would simply not have been economically feasible. Importantly, considering Pezula’s strong emphasis on environmental awareness and the need to protect the many new residents on the estate from noise – for example, the formalized takeoff and approach paths to Pezula’s hilltop helipad facility are designed to minimize their effect on nearby residents – any new helicopter had to at least match the EC120’s low noise footprint.
Thus the completely objective choice narrowed to a single type – the Eurocopter EC130 (with a strict proviso). Much bigger than the EC120, the EC130’s six passenger seats, with four-abreast seating in the rear provided plenty of leg-room for passengers in luxurious, comfortable leather seats while still offering the same kind of outstanding visibility as the 120. The one proviso in selecting the EC130 was that it had to be able to accept additional baggage pods to accommodate the kinds of large, heavy bags typically carried by the “business-class” passengers who frequented the lodge. It was very much a case of, “no pods, no helicopter.”
“The EC130 is optimized for air tour or sightseeing operations,” says Fanie. “We aren’t in the sightseeing business, which is the (standard) EC130’s forte; we’re in the business of moving people to and from the resort.”
The Eurocopter baggage pods fitted the bill perfectly. Painted in Pezula’s stunning black, gold and white paint scheme, these conformal pods, which only weigh just over 19 kg, are almost invisible and don’t detract from the 130’s appearance in any way. More importantly, according to Fanie, nor do they affect the helicopter’s performance at all.
Unusually for a commercial helicopter operation, Pezula’s own EC130 is not required to operate “profitably”. However, this certainly doesn’t imply any kind of profligate waste; instead, it is because its purpose is to provide part of an overall “Pezula experience” rather than operating as a stand-alone aviation business. Thus, it flies significantly fewer hours a year than would normally be considered “necessary” by some commercial operations. The helicopter still has to make economic sense for Pezula and every aspect of its operation is carefully costed and planned with this in mind. With everything taken into account, Pezula’s owner is satisfied that the helicopter’s operation justifies its cost.

The standard charter rate for Pezula’s aircraft is extremely low compared to EC130s elsewhere – but is deliberately priced that way to offer a worthwhile and attractive service for Pezula clients and customers. While its rates were under review at the time of writing (ridiculous fuel prices were becoming apparent then), the rate for Pezula Estate residents and customers was still going to be kept “attractive”, according to Fanie. To illustrate just how attractive, at the time of writing, a LongRanger in Cape Town was priced one and a half times as much as Pezula’s EC130.
Despite its relatively limited flight time each year, there are times when Pezula’s machine is unavailable and a second machine is required as a backup. For example, the nature of high-end corporate charter work may well necessitate the exclusive dedication of the machine to a client at the same time as another client might need an airport transfer. For such eventualities, Pezula Aviation has an agreement with Tibo Terblanche to make his privately owned EC130 available as a backup (with Tibo approved as the second pilot). Tibo’s machine, which is also a near-new aircraft, is included in Pezula Aviation’s air service certificate and is kept in the same pristine condition as Pezula’s helicopter.
Like Fanie, Tibo also previously flew an EC120. Before his 120, Tibo owned a Robinson R44. Interestingly, in his opinion, the step up from the EC120 to the EC130 was a bigger one than the step from the R44 to the 120 in terms of capabilities, performance and demands upon the pilot.
Both pilots are full of praise for Eurocopter’s products. While few would argue the appeal of the EC130, the EC120 has its occasional detractors – mainly for its perceived lack of power.
Neither Fanie nor Tibo accept such criticism and simply reinforce the need to accept any aircraft’s limitations. Fanie, who has more than 2,500 hours in the 120 and flew it extensively in difficult game capture work, says, “It’s a good machine. I flew EC120s for five years and felt very familiar and comfortable with it. It’s completely predictable with adequate performance – and the passengers at Pezula loved it. Of course it’s got less power than the 130, but as long as you always fly it according to the flight manual, there won’t be a problem.”
Other helicopter operators – indeed, other aircraft operators, period – will relate to the occasional unfounded complaints received by Pezula about its “noisy, troublesome, annoying or dangerous” aircraft. The complaints are a source of frustration to Fanie who is constantly aware of Pezula’s helicopters’ potentially annoying effects upon anyone on the ground. However, few – if any – of the complaints end up relating to Pezula or either of its two EC130s. Invariably, the aircraft complained of either belong to other operators based nearby, or are visitors passing through. The quietness of the EC130s makes them unnoticeable most of the time, and only noisier helicopters are ever noticed. Fanie recounts one (typical) complaint – accompanied by photographs of the offending helicopter, no less – detailing dangerous flying, noise and general nuisance by the pilot. The photos of Pezula’s “annoying” helicopter clearly showed an R44 in a completely different paint scheme!

Such ignorance by a non-aviation-minded public is a problem plaguing helicopter operators worldwide, where it is common for the resident (known) operator to be assumed to be the offender.

Pezula’s two EC130s – the resort’s own and Tibo’s – comprise a high percentage of a very small number of dedicated “corporate” helicopters in South Africa. Fanie says that the corporate market in South Africa is very under-developed. In part, he says, this is because South African regulations require commercial helicopters to operate from approved helipads – of which there are very few publicly available. He describes South Africa as a very “helicopter-unfriendly” country. According to Fanie, even Johannesburg is poorly served by public heliports and privately owned commercial heliports are, not surprisingly, usually limited to operations by their owners.
Pezula’s two single-engined EC130s are certainly the only “corporate” machines in the area and while they are primarily dedicated to servicing Pezula and its clients (and although Pezula doesn’t advertise their availability outside the Pezula group) they are available for corporate or charter work. Fanie says that of all the many clients they have carried, only one has ever demanded a twin in place of the EC130. Nevertheless, he says Pezula Aviation is looking to expand its operations and realizes the limitations inherent in a purely VFR machine. Therefore, in future, the company may move to a twin as a necessary “next step”. Should this happen, it would be a case of replacing the 130 rather than complementing it and operating two types.
He understands that the company would have to be very careful and consider the market before making such a move. The significantly greater cost of operating a twin would have to involve a committed move into more dedicated corporate work rather than tourism or air tour type of operations.
The company has a good working relationship with On Air Helicopters and Fanie says the two companies exchange clients and contacts as required when one or the other is unable to fulfill a customer’s requests. “It is far better to work with your competitors than fight one another,” Fanie believes.

While Pezula has no intention of becoming a fully commercial operation, and will remain focused on its own customers and residents, it is, nevertheless, looking to increase business. To this end, it is looking for a suitable game reserve “partner” within a reasonable distance (no more than 90 minutes’ flying time) from Knysna that is able to offer its customers the “big five” (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo).

The difficulty for an absolute top-end operation like Pezula is finding partners that are able to offer similarly high levels of service, which Pezula’s customers will expect. Once it is able to secure suitable partners, the plan is to offer “package” deals incorporating a stay at Pezula Lodge, a safari and Cape Winelands tours.
In its unique location in this unique continent, Pezula Aviation’s unique operation will undoubtedly continue to stand out from the crowd as it develops and thrives.