Manchester-Islamabad (with PIA)

I finnaly got round to finishing the trip report (just the first leg lol). I don’t know if I weill ever go to Pakistan again after the Cricket attacks but who knows. here goes:

Manchester International Airport to Islamabad International Airport
Pakistan International Airlines- PK702 (Boeing 777-300 ER)
Terminal 2

We arrived quite late for check in, taxi didn’t turn up. So were had to get a hitch from the neighbours. When we finally got to the Airport, we had the usual scares of leaving the passport at home, but luckily, we found it. Check on was swift, just a quick passport check and we were checked in by some friendly Servisair staff who didn’t really know what they were doing, but did it in the end. The Airports Wi-Fi Service failed to work on my newly purchased C905, which was a disappointment, but it didn’t really matter.

Security checks were also quick, as usual I ‘accidentally’ left a drink in my hand luggage therefore they took it from my bag and destroyed it! When we got passed security, we were met by a building site where they were making some new shops. We walked further on and came to the ‘Duty Free’ shopping, which in all fairness was an absolute rip off. Shops included Dixons and a few others including Alpha Airport Shopping. They were giving away a free Aston Martin, if you entered this sort of competition, but no one signed up.

Then the announcement came for us to check in first in English, then in the Pakistani language. The queue was huge but we were entertained by the legendary background music of ‘5 6 7 8’ from Steps and ‘Tragedy’ also from Steps.


After the wait of around 20 minutes, we walked in the air bridge, down the stairs and were met by a stunning looking Pakistani Cabin Crew. And then, we got onboard. This was the first time I had ever been on a 777-300 ER, to tell you the truth, it just looks like any other 777. I was surprised to see at the seats at the front one of the economy cabin had no entertainment screens on the back of their seats unlike all the other seats on the plane that did. But, they did get extra leg room.

The seats were comfortable and for economy class the leg room was not bad. One thing I was looking forward to was the screens. I remember when I went to Australia with Emirates, the ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) systems were fantastic with a wide range of on demand films to watch. Sadly on Pakistan International Airlines they couldn’t offer the same thing. Unlike Emirates who had cameras on the belly of the plane and the nose of the plane so you could see the world beneath you PIA just had a route map on the screen, and some pixalated images on a slideshow running.

Looking out the window I saw another PIA 777 but that one was off to Lahore, and it set off before us.

After around half an hour of waiting to hear from someone why we were half an hour late we finally got an announcement from the captain whom you could just about here through the quite feeble PIA speakers. He told us we had missed our take off slot and he was trying his best to get another one. An hour later, we were pulled away from the stand and dumped on the taxiway. Then another ten minute wait. Eventually the engines started and we moved. Looking out the window I saw the water on the taxiway being blown away by the most powerful jet engine and a few other aircrafts including Jet2. Soon after we lined up on runway 24L for takeoff. Then a big monster of a sound of the engines and off we went. It felt like a very steep take off, much steeper than the ones you get at leeds-Bradford. I saw a few small roads and towns but nothing spectacular.

I had known that we were going to Pakistan for a long time now, so I had deliberately not been the the cinema or watched films for the last two months. The service PIA offered was on-demand films, music and radio programs. The top films on offer were Wanted and the Incredible Hulk both of which I had already seen. I forced myself to watch Battle in Seattle, a film based on a true story about riots which happened during 1999.

Around an hour into the flight and flying over the Holland (I think), we had our first meal:
Bread with butter, Rice with Curry (Delicious), Salad, Rice Pudding and a Drink (Tea). It was so nice I asked for more and very kindly the cabin crew gave me some.

For the next few hours I spent my time on my PSP, focused only on completed Medal of Honour Heroes before we landed. Six hours later and it was breakfast time:

Tuna Sandwiches, Salad, Cake and a drink (Tea). A few hours later and I could see the sun rising as we entered Pakistani Territory. I saw some fantastic views of Pakistani/Afghan Mountains.

As our decent began as we were told to sit down and switch off all electrical devices off. As I peered out the window I saw the airport which we were due to land at, you could see a few planes parked and one landing, later I found out that it was an internal Pakistani Flight. After flying over the airport I noticed most of the land was empty unlike the cramped town of Rawalpindi we flew over before.

Eventually we took a sharp turn over a sewage works and turned back towards the airport. We landed in the middle of some farm land (or so it seemed like it). Only when you saw the terminal building (Looks a bit like a rundown shopping centre) you realised you have actually landed at an airport and not in someone’s farm.

We taxied back up the runway, turned left onto a taxi passing several United Nation Aircrafts, Private Jets, Light Aviation, PIA 747 (Internal Flight), Ethihad, and another PIA 747 before finally parking up.
Nice Clean Runway:


PIA 747:





Islamabad International Airport currently does not have any air bridges, so you have to take the stairs. Unlike in Europe the Stairs are enclosed so you can’t see outside. When we got to the bottom we were told to go into some old busses (looked like six thousand years old), that took us to the terminal.

The Pakistani Border was divided into two sections, the Foreigners queue and the Pakistani Queue, nevertheless we were just told to join any queue. All of a sudden, we heard the sounds of phone ringtones. Hundreds all playing at the same time. It seems that everyone got the same text message, Welcome to Pakistan and something else about your network provider has changed temporarily while we were in this country. The border check was quick and simple, they used a face recognition camera to check it was me and then stamped my passport and I was off.

The baggage control systems were old but still newer than the ones I used at Heathrow terminal 2. As usual we were the last ones to get our baggage, with all the rest of the Manchester passengers had gone. Ten minutes later, we were outside waiting for some of friends to pick us up. The outside of the terminal is a very busy place. There was hundreds of people waiting for passengers. While waiting I took my opportunity to try out some of the Pakistani Sweets. I bought toffees, bubble gum, Maltesers, and some skittles. The taste difference is massive compared to the sweet we eat in the United Kingdom.

An hour late and we were still waiting to be picked up. Out of nowhere came at least around 60 Police people with huge guns and hundreds of police vehicles. They pushed all the people in front of the terminal back and forced them to the other side of the car park. They didn’t even say a word to us, probably because they knew that we were foreign because of our skin colour, who knows? I had the courage to ask one of them what the hell is going on and they said the Prime Minister of the U.K Gordon Brown is coming”.
Some of our holiday in Pakistan:
A modern Pakistani Street:

Looks like they’ve missed out the ‘i’ here:

The Pakistanis are very good at English Spelling:

Stunning Lahore:


A rocky Pakistani Motorway: