PIA crew ranked seventh best staff in South Asia

Rating Justification

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is misleading.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a keyword search to find the original source.

Multiple people on social media platform X, including PTI supporters, shared an image on October 31, 2025, claiming that the crew of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) was ranked the seventh best staff in South Asia and proceeded to criticise and question the alleged development. However, the development is old from 2022.

Earlier in October 2025, the national flag carrier resumed flights to the United Kingdom after a five-year-long hiatus. According to a PIA official, the restoration of the route — which was banned after one of the airline’s Airbus A320 crashed in Karachi and killed 100 people aboard — was a strategic milestone for PIA and showed that the national airline was committed to providing the best possible service.

The region of South Asia comprises the following countries, as per the composition of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

HOW IT STARTED

On Oct 31, PTI core committee member and leader Abuzar Salman Niazi shared an image on X featuring PIA airhostesses.

The text on the photo read, “PIA’s staff has been ranked as the seventh best staff in South Asia.” It also included a logo of Jaanlo, a digital media news and advertising agency.

The caption of his own post said: “What kind of publicity is this? There are eight countries in South Asia. Afghanistan doesn’t have any airline. So Pakistan is technically last.”

It garnered 119,000 views and 2,400 likes.

The image and claim were subsequently shared by former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Khan Suri.

“The incompetence of the Dako Duffar Alliance is at its peak; there are eight countries in South Asia, and Afghanistan has no airline, so Pakistan is technically at the very end,” he said in a post, which gathered 38,800 views.

Soon, other PTI supporters circulated the image and the claim, as seen here, here, here, here and here, amassing over 52,000 views collectively.

Additionally, Indian propagandist accounts also shared the image and claim, as seen here, here and here, collectively gaining 592,727 views.

One of them shared the post with the caption: “PIA staff ranked seventh best staff in South Asia. South Asia has eight countries and Pakistan nation is celebrating this.”

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the matter.

A keyword search to verify whether the development had actually taken place yielded a news report by Pro Pakistani, an online news outlet, dated October 25, 2022. It was titled: “Only one Pakistani airline’s staff ranked among best in South Asia”.

The PIA staff was “ranked among the best staff in South Asia by Skytrax, a UK-based consultancy firm that runs an airline, airport review and ranking platform”, the report said.

“According to Skytrax’s Best Airline Staff in South Asia 2022, PIA’s staff has been ranked as the seventh best staff in South Asia. The staff of Air India, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and Air India Express have been ranked below the national flag carrier’s staff,” it added.

Global Village Space, a news web portal, also ran a report on Oct 27, 2022, with the title: “PIA ranked as having seventh-best staff in South Asia”. TechX Pakistan also carried the development.

The keyword search did not yield any recent news reports on the matter by international and local media outlets.

Moreover, a reverse image search also yielded the original Jaanlo Instagram post, dated Oct 22, 2025.

“PIA staff have been ranked among the best staff by Skytrax, a UK-based consultancy firm that runs an airline, airport review, and ranking platform,” the caption of the post said.

“According to Skytrax’s Best Airline Staff in South Asia 2022, PIA’s staff has been ranked as the seventh best staff in South Asia. The staff of Air India, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and Air India Express have been ranked below the national flag carrier’s staff,” it added.

Therefore, not only is the development old, it was also not a ranking of South Asia’s national carriers, but a ranking of the top 10 airlines in the region, as evident by the inclusion of multiple Indian airlines in the list.

FACT-CHECK TITLE: MISLEADING

The claim that the PIA crew has been ranked as the seventh best staff in South Asia is misleading.

The development is old from October 2022 and was a ranking of the top 10 airlines in South Asia instead of a ranking of the national carriers of the region’s eight countries.

Evidence and References

Oct 22, 2022, Jaanlo Instagram post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkLAznBM-K3/

Oct 25, 2022, Pro Pakistani report: https://propakistani.pk/2022/10/25/only-one-pakistani-airlines-staff-ranked-among-best-in-south-asia/

Oct 27, 2022, Global Village Space report: https://www.globalvillagespace.com/pia-ranked-as-having-seventh-best-staff-in-south-asia/

Oct 25, 2022, TechX Pakistan report:
https://techx.pk/pias-staff-is-ranked-best-in-south-asia/#google_vignette