The government on Monday said Indian Airlines would be allowed to fly to the UK, subject to the availability of Air-India's unutilised capacity. As per a recent agreement between India and the UK, Indian carriers can fly 40 flights a week to the UK.

"The present agreement allows 19 flights and Air-India is not using them all. When the capacity is increased, we will ask Air-India to use as much as it can. Indian Airlines will be given the capacity unutilised by Air-India," Ajai Prasad, secretary, ministry of civil aviation said on Monday.

He also said the government was in the process of opening more international routes to domestic private carriers.

India's private airlines have been allowed to fly to neighbouring countries and they have been petitioning the government for permission to fly to the Asean and Europe.

He also said the government expected the modernisation of the Delhi and Mumbai airports to be completed by 2007-08. The government had shortlisted nine companies, which would be invited for a pre-bid conference early in December.

The government is also hoping to finalise Indian Airlines' fleet acquisition plan by the end of the current fiscal year. It has given the go-ahead to the state-run carriers to start negotiations with Airbus to buy 49 aircraft, a deal that is expected to be worth Rs 9,745 crore (Rs 97.45 billion).

Meanwhile, India and the European Union on Monday decided to extend an agreement to continue cooperation in the civil aviation sector, especially in safety, security and air traffic management for two more years.

The detailed project under the agreement, which was launched in 2001, is aimed at evolving common regulations and standards in a variety of areas like satellite navigation, mutual certification of products, licensing procedures for pilots, manufacturing and maintenance.