South Africa’s Pambele Aviation lands Guernsey investor

Guernsey-based Pula Aviation Ltd, the majority shareholder of Pula Aviation Services Ltd, has acquired a shareholding in Pambele Aviation (PMX, Johannesburg Grand Central), an air charter specialist based at Johannesburg Grand Central, South Africa.

The Pula Group owns and operates a growing number of safari lodges and game reserves in Southern Africa, while Pambele Aviation provides fully managed air charter services throughout Southern Africa, including Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique, and Namibia.

Announcing the transaction, Pula Aviation’s managing director, Nick Brown, explained that Pambele Aviation provides bespoke transfers to the Pula Group lodges in remote locations where local knowledge and expertise are vital to ensure that guests arrived safely. “It is a natural progression of our strong relationship with the team at Pambele Aviation that we have now taken a stake in the business,” he said.

Pambele Aviation’s director, Francois Joubert, said the charter carrier has ambitious plans to expand its fleet and service offering. He confirmed to ch-aviation that the company currently operates one Beech (twin turboprop) King Air B200, ZS-SWR (msn BB-1570), and one Cessna (single turboprop) 208B Grand Caravan, ZS-JUM (msn 208B-2433), both owned by its sister company, Pula Aviation Services. Pambele also has a satellite base at Nelspruit, the gateway to the Kruger National Park and southern Mozambique.

Rebranded from Jemax Aviation, Pambele was established in 2005, initially using two Bell Helicopter 206 Jet Ranger IIIs leased to third-party operators. A non-scheduled air service license was granted in 2007, followed by the issuing of a Part 127 AOC (helicopter) and a Part 135 AOC (light fixed-wing) by the South African Civil Aviation Authority in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Over time, the company changed from a helicopter operator to a light fixed-wing service.

Pula Aviation, meanwhile, operates a stable of business aviation entities, including Bristol-based aircraft management specialist Centreline (CLF, Bristol Int’l), which it acquired in 2016. Centreline subsequently acquired the trading name and key assets of Capital Air Ambulance (EGL, Coventry) from the Rigby Group.

Pula has a 25% shareholding in Aiglle Flight Support Limited, a business aviation handling facility in Guernsey. In 2018, it acquired 100% of the shareholding of Guernsey-based ASG Ltd, a business and general aviation services company with maintenance, handling, and aircraft sales and acquisition capabilities.