Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) has announced a big relief for all airlines as it exempted its crews from the mandatory coronavirus test, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

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 will 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.

On October 1, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) gave clean-chit to 58 Pakistani pilots who were put on the list of pilots having ‘fake licences’. 

Two record-holders, Maryam and Erum, were also among the PIA pilots whose names have been removed from the list of ‘fake pilots’.

The CAA has been in action against alleged fake pilots in the wake of the May 22 plane crash in Karachi while the opposition ‘smelt a rat’.

The dubious degrees of pilots drew global attention on June 24 when Federal Minister Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan presented the plane tragedy report to the parliament.

The minister said almost 40 percent of the pilots in Pakistan had fake licences and of 860 pilots registered with CAA, 262 had manipulated their credentials.