Pakistan International Airlines, PIA, is getting a bumpy ride over a promotional graphic that appears to evoke a terror attack on Paris.

The graphic, posted on X on January 10 to publicize the airline?s renewed flights to the French capital, shows a passenger jet flying toward the Eiffel Tower, alongside the tagline: ?Paris, we?re coming today.?

While the graphic was intended to promote new twice-weekly flights between Islamabad and Paris, social media users quickly drew parallels with the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and called on the airline to rethink its approach.

?Fire your marketing manager,? wrote one, while another asked: ?Who thought this ad was a good idea??

A Pakistan International Airline (PIA) plane taxis on the runway on the way to Saudi Arabia on February 8, 2016.

Omar Quraishi, a former media adviser to Pakistani politician Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, also questioned the state-run airline in a post on X.

?Did the airline management not vet this? Did the idiot who designed this graphic not see a PIA plane heading for the Eiffel Tower? One of Europe?s iconic landmarks,? he wrote.

According to Pakistani media, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has ordered an inquiry into how the ad was approved for publication.

Despite the controversy, the first PIA flight from Islamabad to Paris in four and a half years touched down safely on January 11, according to a post from the airline on X.

A special plane marked with ?commemorative decals? was used for the flight, the airline said in another post, adding that it ?was pleasantly greeted by the airport workers.?

This is not the first time the airline has attracted international headlines in recent years.

In 2019, PIA announced that it was cracking down on what it termed the ?excess weight? of some of its cabin crew.

A memo distributed to approximately 1,800 cabin crew said they had six months to slim down to required limits or face being grounded.

And in 2020, PIA grounded almost a third of its pilots after a government investigation revealed that hundreds across the country had fake licenses and were not qualified to fly (CNN)

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