New Delhi, Aug. 19: Vijay Mallya-owned Kingfisher Airlines has got permission to fly abroad and will begin its international operations with flights to London.

The civil aviation ministry gave its approval to Deccan Aviation, in which Kingfisher Airlines merged in 2007, to fly abroad as it has completed five years of domestic operation and has a fleet of at least 20 aircraft. Kingfisher will start a Bangalore-London flight from the first week of September.

Kingfisher will become the third private airline to get government approval after Jet Airways and Sahara.

Deccan has been given the right to fly to the US, the UK, Singapore, the UAE, Thailand, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Pakistan.