Covid-19 Negative Test Result: Saudia fined for flying 5 passengers without certificates

Mobile court at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has fined Saudi Arabian airline Tk 2 lakh for carrying passengers to Dhaka without having Covid-19 negative certificate.

Ahmed Zamil, an executive magistrate at the HSIA, fined Saudia on December 15.

He told The Daily Star that Saudia brought 516 Bangladeshi expatriate workers -- who were in different detention camps or jails -- in two special and one regular flights on December 14 and 15.

Of the total passengers, only three had Covid-19 negative certificates, added Zamil.

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh on Sunday said from now on any airline carrying passengers without coronavirus negative certificates will have to face flight suspension penalty for different terms.

CAAB came up with the strict directives following a number of airlines bringing passengers to Dhaka without Covid-19 negative certificates in recent weeks.

In some cases, several airlines also carried passengers having Covid-19 positive certificates.

An airline will face suspension for one scheduled flight for first time's mistake for carrying people without coronavirus negative certificates or taking Covid-19 affected passengers.

For the second-time mistake, three such flights will be suspended; for the third time, it will be one-week; and at least four-week suspension will come in case of fourth-time mistake.

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh in a circular on December 4 announced that anyone wants to come to Bangladesh from December 5 must need Covid-19 negative certificate within 72 hours of their flight schedule.

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

Sources at the HSIA said around 1,400 passengers came to Dhaka by different airlines without having Covid-19 negative certificates since December 5.

Mobile court at the HSIA on December 13 fined Air Asia, a Malaysia-based budget airline, Tk 1 lakh for carrying an identified Covid-19 positive passenger who had Covid-19 positive certificate with him.

The mobile court on December 12 also fined Biman Bangladesh Airlines Tk 30,000 for carrying six passengers without having Covid-19 negative certificate through RT-PCR test.

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