Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport

Chief Dawid Stuurman International Airport (formerly Port Elizabeth International Airport until its 2021 renaming) is the principal airport serving Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) and the Nelson Mandela Bay metropolitan area in South Africa's Eastern Cape province. Named after the 18th-19th century Khoisan leader Dawid Stuurman who resisted British colonial expansion, the airport is located roughly 1 mi (2 km) from the Indian Ocean coastline at 226 ft (69 m) elevation and unusually close to the city centre — around 3 mi (5 km), among the shortest airport-to-downtown distances of any major South African city. PLZ is operated by Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) and functions as the commercial air gateway for a metropolitan area of roughly 1.3 million people, plus catchment extending into the Sundays River Valley, Jeffreys Bay surf coast, and the Wild Coast. The airport handles 10 routes across 4 destinations through 5 airlines. South African Airways, SA Airlink, FlySafair, CemAir, and Lift operate a domestic-focused network dominated by the 'Golden Triangle' connections to Johannesburg (O.R. Tambo and Lanseria), Cape Town, and Durban. These three routes collectively account for the overwhelming majority of capacity. International scheduled service is currently absent from the published schedule, although PLZ retains international designation for charter flights and customs clearance of cross-border general aviation. The airport handles measurable cargo traffic supporting Eastern Cape automotive manufacturing — the region hosts Volkswagen, Isuzu, and Ford plants — and seasonal passenger peaks for the Jeffreys Bay surfing season. The primary asphalt runway 08/26 measures 7,087 ft (2,160 m), with a secondary runway 17/35 of 5,502 ft (1,677 m). The terminal is a single-building facility with distinctive curved architecture and has been progressively upgraded. The airport's proximity to Algoa Bay and open coastal topography produces occasionally challenging crosswind operations. PLZ's importance as a capital-of-province-adjacent airport is reinforced by its role handling government, business, and tourism flows for the entire eastern seaboard of South Africa between Durban and East London.