New Delhi: After having allowed private Indian airlines to fly to SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries, the Union Cabinet is likely to take a decision to permit them to launch operations to other international destinations in a month's time, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said today (Nov 2, 2004).

"Private airlines will be allowed to fly abroad. We are going to the Cabinet and need not wait for the new Civil Aviation Policy to be finalised," Patel told reporters after receiving the second and final part of the report of the high-powered Naresh Chandra Committee on civil aviation in New Delhi.

"The process (to send notes to various ministers) is already on... A decision may be taken in a month's time."