A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from March 02, 2013
Please Inform Allah (Pakistan International Airlines or PIA backronymic nickname)

PIA (Pakistan International Airlines) was founded in 1946 (as Orient Airways) and is the national flag carrier of Pakistan. The PIA backronymic (back acronym) nickname of “Please Inform Allah” was cited in print in 1960.
 
PIA has also been nicknamed “Perhaps I Arrive.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Pakistan International Airlines
Pakistan International Airlines (Urdu: پاکستان انٹرنیشنل ایئر لائنز‎; generally known as PIA; or Pakistan International), is the national flag carrier and a state-owned enterprise of the Government of Pakistan. Once regarded as Asia’s best airline, it is headquartered at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi and operates scheduled services to 24 domestic destinations and 38 international destinations in 27 countries across Asia, Europe and North America. Its main bases are at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad/Rawalpindi.
       
Google Books
Flight International
Volume 78
October-December 1960
Pg. 632:
Every airline is fair bait in the cruel “initials” game but “Perhaps I’ll Arrive” and “Please Inform Allah” were gibes that with some justification were taken to heart by the airline’s new management under Air Cdre Nur Khan.
 
Google Books
In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods
By Galen A. Rowell
San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books
1977
Pg. 49:
A man who spoke English told us that the airline’s initials, PIA, stood for “Perhaps I Arrive” or “Please Inform Allah.”
 
Google Books
The Making of a Muckraker
By Jessica Mitford
London: Michael Joseph
1979
Pg. 234:
P.I.A. (the Pakistani line) — Please Inform Allah.
 
Google Books
Bridgehead Afghanistan
By Wilhelm Dietl
New Delhi: Lancer International
1986
Pg. 177:
Since I generally take a five to seven hours’ delay with PIA for granted (insiders maintain this means ‘Please Inform Allah’ , or ‘Panic International Airlines) and am almost always right, I accept everything first of all rather amazed.
 
Google Groups: rec.humor
Fly if you dare !!!
B|rge Haga
7/2/91
(...)
PIA (Pakistan International Airlines)
- Please Inform Allah
- Panic In Air
- Perhaps I Arrive
       
Airliners.net Discussion Forum
Topic: Funny Airline Nicknames
Username: CptGirmayTesfa
Posted 2003-10-26 19:21:57 and read 30770 times.
 
SABENA: Such A Bad Experience Never Again
AeroPeru: AeroPuree / AeroPeor
Servivensa: Serverguenza
Avianca: Avinunca
PIA: Please Inform Allah
 
Google Books
The Girl from Foreign:
A Search for Shipwrecked Ancestors, ForgottenHistories, and a Sense of Home

By Sadia Shepard
New York, NY: Penguin Books
2008
Pg. 84:
I had heard my mother’s friends in Karachi joke to one another about PIA’S many nicknames. Instead of “Pakistan International Airlines” they called it “Please Inform Allah,” or “Perhaps I Arrive.” Nothing connected to PIA ever seemed to run on time.
 
The News (Pakistan)
Deader than a dodo
Masood Hasan
Sunday, March 03, 2013
(...)
Dog eat dog is a far more civilised state of affairs than the farce this national airline, this pride of Pakistan, has become. PIA is like the national cricket team, only worse I guess. ‘Please Inform Allah’ and ‘Perhaps I Arrive’ are cruel cuts but only the travelling public knows the joke is on them.

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityTransportation • Saturday, March 02, 2013 • Permalink


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