Airlines carrying passenger without Covid-19 negative certificates to face flight suspensions

From now on, airlines carrying passengers without Covid-19 negative certificates will have to face flight suspension of different terms.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) came up with the directives after a number of airlines were recently found to have brought passengers to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport without them having Covid-19 negative certificates.

Group Captain Chowdhury Zia-ul-Kabir, member (Flight Standards and Regulations) of CAAB, said with great concern, CAAB is observing that several airlines were carrying passengers who did not get the required certificates.

Some airlines are even carrying Coronavirus-infected passengers. Such activities are having a negative impact on the initiatives taken by the government to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

Airlines will face suspension for one scheduled flight for the first offence of carrying passengers without a Covid-19 negative certificate or carrying a passenger who has Covid-19.

For same mistake twice, three scheduled flights of the airlines will be suspended, and for the third time, flights will be suspended for one week.

The airline's flight will also be suspended for at least four weeks in case of committing the offence the fourth time.

A mobile court at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on December 13 fined Air Asia, a Malaysia-based budget airlines, Tk 1 lakh for carrying an identified Covid-19 positive passenger who had a Covid-19 positive certificate with him.

The mobile court at the HSIA on Saturday also fined Biman Bangladesh Airlines Tk 30,000 for carrying six passengers without having Covid-19 negative certificates.

Earlier on December 11, Maldivian Airlines was fined Tk 2,38,000 for carrying passengers to Bangladesh without Covid-19 negative certificates.

CAAB in a circular on December 4 announced that anyone who wants to come to Bangladesh from December 5 onwards needs to have Covid-19 negative certificates within 72 hours of their flight schedule.

CAAB came up with the strict measure in a bid to contain the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

The regulatory authority also asked all airlines operating to and from HSIA not to issue boarding passes to the passengers without the required certificates.

Recently, the rate of incoming passengers without Covid-19 negative certificates has increased.

In November alone, more than 4,000 passengers arrived without it.

Therefore, the government made it mandatory to have the certificates.