Pakistan Airlines (PIA) is set to commence its flight to Paris after a hiatus of four years, and while the news is of course a relief, the social media of the national carrier thought experimenting with a visual that shows the plane flying right towards the Eiffel Tower was a good idea.
The embassy also retweeted the visual stating that the flight would land today at 1700 Paris local time at the Charles de Gaulle Airport.
But given one historical event on 9/11 which involved planes crashing into Twin Towers and changing the world as we Pakistanis knew it, the visual should have perhaps been taken down.
Interestingly, while there could be a wide range of music to choose from for the Instagram post, the company decided to go with Bruno Mars’ romantic number Just the Way You Are, which again seems quite misplaced.
Also read: PIA resumes direct flights to Paris after four years
Pakistani social media, of course, did not let go of the opportunity to remind PIA that the graphic is actually not as brilliant as they thought it was.
Some wanted to save the image before (and hopefully) it was taken down:
Some poked fun at the graphic designer:
Others referred to older ads to make their point:
Some just wanted to remind a rather nicely done print many decades prior to 9/11 which unintentionally foreshadowed the tragedy, giving good fodder to conspiracy theorists.
Maybe for future, showing a plane flying above any building especially a historical landmark would be a good idea to brainstorm from more so given the local history of PIA in recent years.
Nevertheless one can hope that the flights which will be operated twice a week, from Islamabad to Paris every Friday and Sunday would continue and lift the national carrier whose fate pertaining to its ownership has been hanging in the balance since 2023.
Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif who was present at the Islamabad airport to see off the passengers had criticised past aviation minister’s statement that led to the imposition of international sanctions. “For four years, overseas Pakistanis were unable to travel directly to Pakistan from Europe,” Asif said.
He assured that flights to the UK would resume soon after Europe. However, he lamented the lack of accountability in the country, which had caused severe damage to PIA’s reputation and operations.
“Once, PIA was among the world’s best airlines,” he remarked. “Now, PIA will gradually expand its operations across Europe.”
He concluded by announcing plans to start flights to the United States through European transit points, marking a significant step toward restoring PIA’s international presence.