After a spectacular adventure in Pakistan 9 years ago, I traveled to Pakistan again! My Pakistan trip was supposed to be earlier in this spring but due to COVID border restriction and my pilot training, I delayed this trip till December 2021.
There are plenty of flights between the UAE and Pakistan on daily basis. But as an AvGeek, I decided to fly on PIA as it has B777-200/LR scheduled between Dubai and Islamabad. This trip report covers my flight from Dubai to Islamabad on PIA.
My flight was operated by the prototype of B777-200/LR which PIA is the launch customer in 2004. A B777-200/LR set the world record flew 22 hours 42 mins non-stop from Hong Kong eastward to London via the Pacific and the Atlantic.
These business class seats were the industry standard in 2005, when this airplane was delivered. It hasn’t been changed since then. PIA now sell these seats as Executive Economy. You can pay an upgrade of AED150 (USD 40) onboard.
The flight went surprisingly on-time with just 15 minutes behind schedule after offloading 1 no-show’s luggage. I have noticed PIA’s on-time performance was not the best. Almost 50% of the flight runs late. The main reason seems PIA has a shortage of airplanes with an aggressive scheduling. If one plane went AOG (aircraft on ground) or have suffered roll-on delay, the rest of the schedule all fell into pieces.
We departed at 6:43am with the sun just rising.
Watch the takeoff from my video:
Video
After departure, a right 180 turn is executed with flying over the UAE towards the East with sun rising.
The flight time was 2.5 hours to Islamabad. We flew at 37,000 feet.
Breakfast is served with choices of Pakistani omelet or spinach with paratha.
The breakfast was very simple, the omelet taste fairly plain and lack of flavors. The fruit are not fresh (from cans). There’s no differentiation on meals between executive economy and economy on my flights. (I was told the executive economy meals has usually bigger portions and better).
Being an early morning flight, I brought 2 dozens of Krispy Kreme donuts for the crew. We share it together with some Pakistani Masala chai (tea).
An uneventful RNAV approach, we landed on runway 28L at Islamabad. Watch the video of the landing.
Summary
To me, PIA is like a mirror of the country of Pakistan. The crew is hospitable and warm to foreign guest. My advice for anyone who wants to fly with PIA is don’t set any expectations ahead.
My PIA flight experience: The cabin is the same, but the food has been cut. PIA needs to improve on its on-time performance and operational reliability. Moreover, it needs to demonstrate good discipline, which is crucial to safety standards.
There are many issues and challenges for PIA. I met up with PIA CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik about the future of PIA. See the interview below:
What is very sad… Is that pia has loyal costumers around the world… Expats and the quality of flights to UK have been beyond poor with little recognition… Of the state of the plane.. Seating.. Hygiene… No infotainment… And good from the 1970s…i will remain a loyal pia costumer but when will pia show its loyalty to its UK costumers
Yes Sobia Jinab, We would really wish for PIA to recover from the years of neglect and once again claim itself as the rightful and dignified state airline of Pakistan. I fondly remember the good times with the carrier and the only reason I continued to fly on PIA was strictly due to the wonderful and noble people Pakistan that are serving the airline.
As a once frequent flyer of many of the original Central and Southeastern Asian national airlines, I flew on PIA numerous times from the late 1950s’ thru the 1990s’. During the 70s’ thru the early 1990s’ PIA was edging towards being a reasonably efficient and safe airline … but as it was previously mentioned mentioned by the current PIA chief executive officer and the cabin crews, it was the constant meddling of day-to-day operations management of the airline, coupled with political interference and questionable funding schemes committed by Pakistan’s various government agencies and political figures through the recent years. PIA’s demise has been much similar in to what had led to Air India’s present state of flux.