Founded in 1946, PIA has been for decades one of Mid-Asia major carriers, with a network spanning Asia from east to west, Europe and North America. Though, the carrier has always had a poor safety record, with 4 major accidents, of which 2 with the loss of all passengers onboard, in the last decade only. The reputation of the airline was finally compromised when in June 2020 it was revealed that at least one third of all 900 pilots at PIA had suspicious or faked licences. As a consequence, the European Union, UK and US banned the Pakistani carrier from their skies and in a few weeks the ban extended to a total of 188 Countries around the world, de facto making impossible for PIA to fly outside of its own Country airspace. Airlineratings.com attributed 1 star out of 7 to PIA’s safety rating, the world’s poorest. The United Nations recently warned their personnel regarding the risk of flying with the Pakistani national carrier (Photo Wikimedia Commons / Magic Aviation)
- - 5 STARS: Awarded to airlines achieving a very high, overall quality performance. It recognizes high standards of onboard product together with consistent and excellent standards of staff service across airport and cabin environments
- - 4 STARS: Awarded to airlines that deliver a good overall quality performance and provide good product standards across different travel cabins
- - 3 STARS: Awarded to airlines delivering a fair quality performance equating to the industry 'average' of acceptable product and service standards
- - 2 STARS: Shows airlines delivering a lower total quality performance, in some instances below the industry average across many rating categories
- - 1 STAR: Represents a poor quality of product delivered across the assessment sectors