PIA says flights to France ad campaign not meant to be evocative of 9/11 terror attacks

Pakistan's national airline has said that an ad campaign showing a plane heading toward the Eiffel Tower was never intended to evoke the memories of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York.

The illustration shows a plane superimposed over the French flag and tilted toward the Paris landmark, with the words "Paris, we're coming today."

The ad was posted on X by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) on 10 January, the day the company resumed flights to European Union countries after a four-year ban by the bloc's aviation safety agency.

Many social media users immediately decried the ad and Pakistan's prime minister, Shebaz Sharif, called for an inquiry.

On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar described the ad as an act of "stupidity."

PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez said the ad, which hasn't been deleted and has more than 21.2 million views, was only ever meant to celebrate that the airline was resuming flights to Europe and was never intended to harm 9/11 survivors or victims' families.

Hafeez said he was surprised by the criticism but said that, "we apologise to those who feel the advertisement hurt them."

"We want to make it clear that we had no intention to hurt the feelings of anyone," Hafeez said.

He said that the Eifel Tower was shown in the ad because it's one of the best places in the world.

Curbs on the airline had been imposed in 2020 after 97 people died when a PIA plane crashed in Karachi in southern Pakistan.

Then Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan said that an investigation into the crash found that nearly a third of Pakistani pilots had cheated on their pilot’s exams.

A government investigation later concluded that the crash was caused by pilot error.

The ban caused a loss of nearly $150 million (€145 million) a year in revenue for PIA, officials say.

Pakistan has some connections to the 11 September attacks. One of the 9/11 masterminds, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was detained in the country in 2003.

And in 2011, Osama bin Laden was killed in a US special forces raid in Pakistan.