Pakistan International Airlines is about to fly the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for the first time, and the planes are borrowed. PIA announced daily flights to London starting November 1, and it's leasing two Boeing 787s from Norse Atlantic, a Norwegian low-cost airline, to fly its UK routes starting in November. If you're planning a PIA Dreamliner flight to London, I can tell you what the plane is like, because I've flown Norse Atlantic's 787 across the Atlantic in its premium cabin.
What PIA Is Actually Getting
PIA isn't just renting empty planes. In this kind of deal, called a wet lease, Norse supplies the jets along with the pilots, flight attendants and maintenance, while PIA sells the tickets. The planes keep their existing seats and interiors, so PIA's Dreamliners will look and feel like Norse's, down to the people working the aisles.
What PIA hasn't spelled out yet is which UK cities besides London will get the 787, how it will sell the cabins, or what food will be on board. Those details should come before launch, and they'll matter.
PIA · Boeing 787
PIA's Borrowed Dreamliners
Contrail
The Premium Seat
The best part of Norse's 787 is its premium cabin, and if PIA sells it, that's the seat to book. There are 56 seats in a 2-3-2 layout, and the legroom is enormous, with about 43 inches from one seat to the next. It feels genuinely spacious before you even recline.
The recline is deep, and an extendable leg rest, a footrest and firm headrest wings made it easy to sleep. I slept through almost the entire overnight flight from New York to Rome, which is close to the length of a flight from Pakistan to London.
It isn't perfect. The cushions are on the firm side, and the cabin I flew looked like it was overdue for a deep clean. But for legroom and sleep, it beats a lot of premium economy seats on bigger airlines.
The Crew
The crew were the highlight of my flight. They stayed upbeat and professional through a delay of more than three hours, and they went out of their way to help, like handing out free water. Since Norse's crews will be working PIA's Dreamliner flights, that's good news for passengers.
What to Watch For
A few things on Norse's 787 might surprise PIA passengers:
- No Wi-Fi. On my flight there was none, so plan to be offline.
- The screen is the menu. Ordering and the menu run through the seatback screen. Mine didn't work, which made that harder.
- Basic bedding. The pillow and blanket were thin.
- Simple food. I got two meals in the premium cabin, and they were hit or miss. PIA may serve its own food on these flights, which could be a big improvement, but it hasn't said.
Should You Book It?
If PIA sells Norse's premium cabin on its London flights at a fair price, I'd take it. The legroom and the crew are the reasons to fly it, and an overnight flight from Pakistan is exactly where a seat you can sleep in pays off. Just wait until PIA confirms which cabin you're buying and what's included, and check the plane on your booking. A Dreamliner flight will show the Boeing 787 as the aircraft.
For PIA, it's a big moment either way. An airline that was banned from flying to Britain until last year will soon be flying one of the world's most modern long-haul jets there every day, even if it's only borrowing them.
