‘Thank You PIA’: Pakistani air hostesses fly to Canada, and ‘vanish’

Maryam Raza, a cabin crew member of Pakistan International Airlines, flew to Canada and didn’t board the return flight. She left behind a note thanking PIA. Maryan Raza is one of the several PIA staffers who have sought asylum in Canada in recent years.

A note saying, “Thank you, PIA (Pakistan International Airlines),” was found in a Toronto hotel room after a search.

An appreciation note, like this, is what a flight attendant would expect to find from a flyer after a nice and cosy flight.

However, the note saying, ‘Thank you, PIA’, was actually written by an air hostess, and not a satisfied flyer.

The note was from Maryam Raza, who worked with the PIA and had landed in Toronto on a flight from Islamabad on Monday (February 26) but didn’t report for duty on her return flight to Karachi a day later.

When authorities looking for Maryam opened her hotel room, they found her PIA uniform with the ‘Thank you, PIA’ note, reported Dawn.

Maryam Raza isn’t the lone example of a PIA crew member landing in Canada and vanishing into thin air. In fact, she was just following a trend.

Maryam’s disappearance comes just a month after PIA flight attendant Faiza Mukhtar’s disappearance in Canada in January 2024.

Faiza Mukhtar, who was rostered to fly back to Karachi a day after landing in Canada “did not board the flight and disappeared”, said PIA spokesperson Abdullah Hafeez Khan.

PIA CREW MEMBERS SEEKING CANADA ASYLUM SINCE 2018

The disappearances of crew members, Maryam and Faiza, actually follow a worrying trend for the PIA, which is itself battling financial and credibility losses.

The disappearance of Maryam marks the second such instance in 2024.

It’s probably no longer the PIA that Jacqueline Kennedy called, “Great people to fly with”, in 1962. That has become the slogan of PIA since then.

In fact, Pakistan isn’t the same Pakistan of the 60s. Surviving on loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and international doles, Pakistan has seen record brain drain in 2023. Unsure about their future in Pakistan, skilled professionals have been leaving the Islamic Republic in hordes.

The trend of Pakistani flight attendants disappearing after crewing a flight to Canada started back in 2019 and has picked up recently, according to aviation news website Simple Flying.

However, The Media Line, a ‘Mideast ‘-based news website, claims to have received information about PIA flight attendants seeking asylum in Canada and other countries as early as 2018.