New Delhi: After allowing private carriers to fly to Colombo, Government has now permitted Jet Airways and Air Sahara to fly to Nepal and Bangladesh with director general of civil aviation (DGCA) approving them to operate to Kathmandu and Dhaka.

The move in effect opens the door for private domestic carriers to fly abroad, after the Union Cabinet gave its nod a couple of months ago to allow them to operate to SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries.

Official sources said the DGCA has allowed them to operate daily flights on the Delhi-Kathmandu and Kolkata-Dhaka sectors, but sought their flight schedules before they start operations, which is likely by later this month.

Jet Airways officials said the airline was ready to start daily flights to the Kathmandu later this month only after the DGCA approved its schedule.

The second phase would be to start operations in May from Kolkata to Dhaka, they said.

After studying the passenger response of its ongoing Chennai-Colombo operations, Jet Airways was also planning to start weekly flights to Colombo from Mumbai, Bangalore and Thiruvananthapuram, they said.

After launching their operations to Sri Lanka, the two carriers had applied to the DGCA for permission to fly to Nepal and Bangladesh and sent their flight schedules. Next on their agenda is to start operations to Maldives.