Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has fined Qatar Airways for violation of Covid-19 Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) as it flew in a coronavirus positive patient, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Saturday.

A Qatar Airways international flight brought in a positive Covid-19 patient which resulted in putting to risk the health and safety of the passengers as well as the personnel working at the airport.

The CAA imposed Rs0.1m fine on Qatar Airways flight QR604 and directed the airline to submit the fine in CAA’s Collection Account at Jinnah International Airport, Karachi.

Covid-19 positive patient Hammad travelled on the Qatar Airways flight after that CAA Air Transport served notice on the international airline and imposed fine.

Now the airline will bear all costs of patient’s treatment and quarantine expenses as well, the CAA further ordered.

https://twitter.com/official_pcaa/status/1317096671873032194

The CAA vowed to take action against such violations in future.

https://twitter.com/official_pcaa/status/1317096603015127043

Earlier, Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) announced a big relief for all airlines as it exempted its crews from the mandatory coronavirus test.

According to the TV channel, the PCAA also exempted crew of airlines in category-B from the coronavirus test. Now there will be no need for COVID-19 tests for category B airlines crew. 

The TV channel reported that the airlines crew would have to submit a health declaration form (HDF) with all the details, the PCAA said on Saturday. 

However, the PCAA said, passengers using the category-B airlines will have to provide the coronavirus test report as per the standard operating procedure (SOPs).

Pakistan has already ended the condition for COVID-19 test for crew and passengers of category-A airlines in which 30 countries are listed.