Buoyed by its first flight to Sri Lanka, Air Sahara, India's leading private airline, is negotiating with a couple of European airlines for a tie-up to begin international flights to various other destinations.

The airline is seeking permission from the Indian government to allow it to bring wide-bodied aircraft for operating flights to European countries.

Air Sahara, which became the first private airline in India to launch an international flight to Colombo from Chennai on Monday night, "is committed to make itself a carrier of masses," its chief executive officer Uttam Kumar Bose told in Colombo on Tuesday. "Currently in India, only one per cent of the people travel by air and our efforts will be to make it an airline of the masses," Bose, who travelled by the first flight to Colombo along with the media and passengers, said.