A group of Pakistani citizens contacted the editorial office of News.Az after encountering problems with Azerbaijan’s national carrier, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL).
We note that on February 12, the editorial team sent a media inquiry to AZAL requesting comment and notified the company accordingly, but no response has been received. Therefore, we are compelled to publish the Pakistani family’s account without the airline’s comment. We hope we will still have the opportunity to present Azerbaijan Airlines’ position.
Six members of one family — Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Salman, Muhammad Usman, Muhammad Umer, Saira Bibi, and Nadia Aslam — report that they were removed from their flight by Azerbaijan Airlines staff at Islamabad Airport. According to them, the “OK to Board” confirmation was not displayed in the system. The family was first removed from the flight on January 5, 2026, and again on January 12. The flights were J2144 and J2143.
“The first time, we were removed from the flight by officers of the Federal Investigation Agency immigration service and representatives of Azerbaijan Airlines at Islamabad Airport, citing the absence of ‘OK to Board’ in the system. The second time, Azerbaijan Airlines staff refused to issue us boarding passes, stating that ‘OK to Board’ was not displayed. We presented a letter from the Azerbaijan Airlines head office confirming that ‘OK to Board’ was not required for us. Nevertheless, we were denied boarding and not issued boarding passes. The Azerbaijan Airlines supervisor at Islamabad Airport, named Saad, refused to issue boarding passes due to the absence of ‘OK to Board’ in the system,” the letter states.
On January 28, the family visited the Azerbaijan Airlines sales office in Islamabad to verify the “OK to Board” status in the system at the request of the airline’s head office. A sales office employee, Danish Aftab, offered to carry out the verification for an additional fee, despite the fact that the Pakistani citizens had purchased their tickets directly through the official AZAL website.
AZAL’s head office refused to provide them with new airline tickets. Rescheduling the flight was impossible because it had already been changed once. The company stated that only a full refund was possible.
However, the ordeal did not end there. According to the complainants, the company is now refusing to issue a full refund, despite twice confirming in writing by email, on January 30 and February 1, that it was prepared to do so.
According to documents provided by the passengers, the total amount to be refunded for all six tickets should be 3,672.60 US dollars. AZAL, however, is offering only 759 US dollars in total. Naturally, this does not satisfy the complainants. They lost not only money but also time. After being removed from the flight for the second time, AZAL’s head office reportedly conducted an investigation for nearly 20 days, but, as the passengers write, “no fair decision was made.” They also did not receive a response to their email.
In addition to the unreimbursed 3,672.60 US dollars for the tickets, the family claims to have lost another 1,282 US dollars. This amount includes expenses for travel, banking operations, expired visas, communication with AZAL’s head office, and other related costs.
We will not even address the moral distress suffered by the Pakistani citizens who had hoped to visit Baku.
The situation is undoubtedly unpleasant. After what they experienced, this family from Pakistan is unlikely to want to deal again with Azerbaijan and its national carrier.
We do not claim that the would-be visitors’ account fully corresponds to reality. However, problems in the national airline’s operations have been mentioned before. Nor do we assert that difficulties were intentionally created for the passengers. Most likely, this is a matter of insufficient professionalism on the part of certain employees, who may not realize that each such incident can inflict reputational damage on the country and its tourism development strategy.
This family undoubtedly has relatives, friends, and neighbours who will now draw their own conclusions about which destinations are worth choosing for travel and which are not.
We expect to receive a clear and comprehensive comment from AZAL that will clarify the situation and dispel doubts. We also hope that the company will take the necessary measures, correct any mistakes made, and apologise to citizens of another country who sincerely wished to become acquainted with Azerbaijan.
