Pakistan Airline ad under investigation after concerning imagery used

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The advertisement from Pakistan International Airlines shows a plane flying toward Eiffel Tower

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An advertisement from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is under investigation, the country’s prime minister said, after it appeared to show a plane flying in the direction of the Eiffel Tower.

The image was posted by the airline on social media on Jan. 9 to announce that it would be resuming flights to and from France in January. The ad shows an airplane going toward the 300-metre French monument with the slogan, “Paris, we’re coming today.” The colours of the French flag are shown in the background. At the bottom of the photo, it reads: “Resuming flights between Islamabad and Paris from January 10, 2025.”

The ad is being criticized for its imagery, which is reminiscent of the 9/11 attacks that took place in the United States, the Daily Beast, The Guardian and NBC News reported. On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked a total of four commercial planes, two of which were flown into New York City’s Twin Towers.

The country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry into the ad, according to Pakistani news channel Geo News.

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Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan and Minister for Foreign Affairs Ishaq Dar reportedly said the ad was “stupidity” in a parliamentary session, per The Guardian and the Daily Beast. Prime Minister Sharif would be looking into “who conceived this ad,” said Dar.

The airline has not removed the image from its X account as of Thursday afternoon. The airline did not immediately respond to the National Post’s request for comment.

In a post on Jan. 10, the airline shared a video of the first PIA flight “in four and a half years” to touch down at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The airline said it will be “operating twice weekly service between Islamabad and Paris.” In a post on Jan. 11, the airline shared images of a PIA plane with Paris-themed decals, including one that said “I love Paris” and one that showed a heart next to the Eiffel Tower.

The airline was suspended from operating in the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU) and the United States in the summer of 2020 after the Pakistani government discovered that one third of PIA’s pilots “may have achieved their licence by paying others to sit for their examinations,” World of Aviation reported. The ban has since been lifted in certain countries.

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In November 2024, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency said that PIA would be allowed to run commercial flights to and from the EU, according to Aviation Week Network. Regulators in the United Kingdom have yet to follow suit; however, per the publication, the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority could permit PIA to resume travels to the country “in the near future.”

On its website, the airline lists cities in the U.K. as current international destinations, despite the ban still being in place. Other international destinations listed by PIA include Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Iraq, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Norway, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

In Canada, the airline faced scrutiny as several of its flight attendants seemed to disappear after landing last year. Two crew members went missing before their return flights to Pakistan, the National Post reported in March 2024. It was later discovered that they likely stayed behind on purpose so they could become Canadian immigrants.

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In 2023, Pakistani news site Dawn reported that at least seven crew members from the airline had “gone missing” in Canada. Per the publication, “this trend is due to the flexible Canadian law, which offers asylum after entering the country.”

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