- The airline I'm flying with today is actually banned from flying in Europe. It's banned from flying
into the US as well, but that's all okay because I'm not heading to
either of those places today. I'm flying today with PIA Pakistan International Airlines from here at Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia up to Islamabad in Pakistan. So they told me I needed to
head straight to the gate and check in there. I still don't have my boarding pass, but apparently I have to check in at the gate for the flight. So here is the gate and there is lots of
passengers here but no staff. So I think we just have to wait here. No plane yet either, which
is a little bit worrying. It's actually a much busier flight than I thought it would be. There's lots of people
here waiting for PIA and the rest of the airport is deserted, but here at the PIA gate, it's rammed. It was time to check in which caused some degree of confusion as to why I was actually going to Pakistan in the first place. While I waited our
aircraft finally turned up. Every passenger had to weigh their handbag with most people been weigh over and being sent to the back
of the queue to get reduced. - Well, that was a little bit of a faff, wasn't it checking in there, but I am now at the gate , I've got my boarding pass to Islamabad. And there is my flight
to Islamabad, PIA 777. This one's actually just
got back from a few years, rotting in the desert in Saudi Arabia. It was just called back to
service a few months ago. So freshly serviced and
freshly ready to fly us on the six hour flight from
here at KL up to Islamabad. It's quite funny. I don't think I've ever
seen so many people with so much excess baggage before the gate agents were just taking so much time
off people, unbelievable. I'm just looking at everything
that's coming off the flight out there in the minute and
it's like cardboard boxes and all sorts but not with the boxes. A squirt of sticky fluid later and I nervously made my
way down the jet bridge to the aircraft that I'd
been simultaneously excited and nervous about at the same time. - Okay, here we go PIA. - Good morning. - Hi, how are you? - Very well, thank you. - Nice flight. - Thank you. - Okay, so onboard the PIA 777 this is PIA's Executive
Economy or Business Class. really, but they call it executive economy because it's there all
find a business class seats that's are kind of a bit old and worn now. So they just call it executive economy. And it's pretty decent actually. I'm in row 1 so I've got loads of leg room, seats a bit
cramped, it moves around a little bit, but it's reasonable. It's not too bad. It's in a 2, 3,2 configuration. Hot towel. So the seat is relatively comfortable. It's a bit kind of battered it slides backwards and forwards it's not fastened particularly well, but some controls here for it. Looking a little bit battered and dirty, but I'm sure that they will do the job. It reclines to an almost flat bed position as well, which is pretty decent. And then we've got here sort of looking a little bit battered of life vests in there if we need them pretty
good, pretty comfortable. Anyway the aircrafts kind of
probably about three quarters full it's rammed down the back in economy but up here in executive it's not too bad. A bit of a weird fusty smell on the plane, all the windows are a
bit scratched as well, you can see slidey thing as well. Okay, utter chaos ensuing now. So most of the customers are on board, but a few people are in the wrong seat and we've got passengers
shouting at flight attendants and things, flight attendants running around with bits
of paper in the hands, utter chaos, we should have
left about 10 minutes ago, but it's still passengers are
still fighting over the seats. The boxes kept coming. The seat kept wobbling, but eventually we pushed
back from the gate around half an hour late. This poor sod's run of
bad luck wasn't quite over as he discovered his seat
recline didn't work today, and he had to spend the entire flight with his leg on a metal
box from the galley. Now you're probably not
subscribed to me on YouTube as only about half of you are so I'd love it if you could
please take a second to hit that subscribe button. I release videos like this every week, and every subscriber helps me
to keep the channel grabbing and keep this content coming. My route to Islamabad today then took us north of Kuala Lumpur to cross the Bay of Bengal towards India. We flew across India and into Pakistan with a flight time of
five hours and 20 minutes. I decided to put my seat back a little, which turned out to be well, not quite the smoothest operation. So the reason that PIA got banned from the UK Europe and the US, is it basically turned out that after the latest accident they had, PIA did a bit of an investigation and discovered that a lot
of their pilots were flying, without actually having a pilot's license, some small issue really, I suppose. As a result of that PIA then decided to get rid of all the pilots that they knew didn't have pilot licenses and they've clamped down. So they're not going to
accept any pilotss anymore, unless they've got a license. But clearly the European
Safety Association and FAA didn't think that was good enough. And they've remained banned from Europe and the US ever since. I've got my private pilot's license on me at the minute it's in my bag up top. So if they need me, I'm here. It'd be nice to get a 777 in the logbook. It was soon lunchtime and the crew came around
with their meal choices. - Thank you. - Would you like chicken,
biriani or chicken masala? - Chicken masala please. This was also the point that I made the mistake of asking on on a dry airline. - Do you have any beer? - Sorry - Do you have any beer? - No, just soft drinks Still it was worth the shots I guess. I settled for a fizzy orange juice to drink with my chicken curry. - So lunchtime and not a bad
choice of food here on PIA. They've got choice of like
four different curries and you can choose. I went for the chicken tikka masala. Which looks alright. A few other bits and pieces
going around as well. But for a five hour flight, it's not a bad selection really. It's really nice. Proper nice actually. So then a couple of hours
out of Kuala Lumpur now on our way to Islamabad on PIA 777. Thought I'd come and
look around the bathroom, it's pretty, it's not bad. Just some nice sort of
toiletries and stuff smellies and stuff. The aircraft is not too bad It's a little bit shabby in it's age, but it's like 15 years old. So it's kind of to be expected I guess. It's all dark in the cabin
which is why I've come here because all the
window blinds have been shut by the cabin crew. Now I might try and get my head down and try and get a little bit of rest before we arrive into Islamabad. As I put my seat back, I soon started to regret that decision when I saw what was down
the side of the seat. - I'm kind of regretting
putting my seat back now and I've seen that. So I've just woken up from a nap over India not far to go
before we land into Islamabad. I've been woken up actually
by the unmistakeable smell of cigarette smoke. Very strange. Now of course passengers are strictly prohibited from smoking on board PIA flights. I mean, there's a sign up and everything. And I'm sure that not a single member of the crew or passengers, would ever want to bend those rules, not on PIA surely. We soon got a glimpse
of Pakistan down below. And I have to say, I was surprised
at just how green it was. My flight to Islamabad about cost me £307 or $405 for a flight of 2,800 miles. Giving a cost per mile of £0.11p - Thank you. Thank you very much, goodbye. The airport at Islamabad is wonderful and modern and seemed deserted with just
a couple of planes outside. Arriving into Pakistan right
now is fairly straight forward. You have a temperature scan and drop your completed
health form in a box before going through passport control, and getting on your way. There is however, a 14
day quarantine right now, which meant that for me, I
just had to go to my hotel, stay there overnight and then not leave until I went back to the
airport the next day. - Give me 1500 Rupees - Five Euros. 1500 Rupees. Thank you. - Thank you. My taxi ride to the hotel actually blew my mind. Islamabad is such an
incredibly beautiful city and one I really hope to be going back to when I can stay a little bit longer and experience the wonderful
Pakistani hospitality again. And of course, some more
of those great curries. - So then here in the beautiful city of Islamabad in Pakistan. I mean, it's just an incredible place. My hotel room is amazing. Look at the view I've got
out of this window here. Over the mountains to
the North of Islamabad. Absolutely amazing
flight with PIA actually. I wasn't sure what to expect. I've heard so many differing
opinions on about it and to be honest, they
were perfectly okay. The aircraft was a little bit tired and a little bit worn but apart from that, the service was just absolutely fantastic. The food was great. Everybody I met the entire crew and everybody here in
Islamabad airport as well. were just so nice and lovely as well. I do think it's a bit sad that PIA have kind of had half their route network, decimated lately. They're in a really tough place. They've got some quite old planes as well. And I really honestly do think that given a little bit of
investment in their aircraft that PIA could be up there
with some of the best airlines. They're in a great place here
in Pakistan for connections through to Asia. I really do think that they
could make a really good go of doing long haul services. They just need that
little bit of investment. Let me know what you think of this. And I'd particularly like to hear from Pakistanis in the comments, your opinions of your
national airline as well. Because like I said, PIA is one of those airlines that just gives you
such differing opinions depending on who you speak to. I've spoken to Pakistanis
who love their airline and some that are ashamed of it. I'd love to know your thoughts
down in the comments below. I really do hope you've
enjoyed today's video on PIA. Let me know what you think
to it down in the comments. And don't forget to please
hit that subscribe button if you haven't already done so. So you never miss a video in future. I've got some great stuff coming up and you're not gonna
want to miss any of them. In the meantime though,
as always from Islamabad, thank you so much for watching, take care and I'll see you next time.
