Airlines ignoring orders not to board passengers without negative PCR test report

Carriers violating the rule have to pay the hotel quarantine charges of all passengers, according to a cabinet decision.

On August 25, a charter flight of Air Arabia landed at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport. Among the 161 passengers on board, 142 produced a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test report conducted in the last 72 hours as per regulations. But 18 passengers provided rapid diagnostic test (RDT) results, which have not been authorised by the Nepal government, and one passenger did not produce any test report at all.