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Air-India, Indian Airlines to sell rail tickets abroad

Air-India, Indian Airlines and Indian Railways today signed a memorandum of understanding under which the two national carriers have been appointed as global sales agents for sale of rail tickets abroad through their network.

Under the MoU, signed in the presence of Union Ministers Nitish Kumar, Ananth Kumar and Ram Naik, Air-India and Indian Airlines will sell Indrail passes, journey-cum-reservation tickets and other rail-related services through their outfits abroad in foreign currency alone.

The airlines will be entitled to a 15 per cent commission for the Indrail passes sold by them. Commission will also be admissible for the sale of luxury tourist train tickets.

The strategic alliance, intended to provide a value-added service to inbound passengers, is initially valid for two years and will be extended with the consent of all parties. It will be of immense benefit to inbound passengers in obtaining pre-confirmed onward reservation by rail from their point of disembarkation in India.

It will be known as a single-window clearance which will facilitate journey by Air-India, Indian Airlines and Indian Railways. The new arrangement will help tourist travel and at the same time give the national carriers a competitive edge over the foreign carriers.

The agreement also envisages other arrangements like accessing of railway reservation system and a smooth transfer from the airport to railway stations.

In the first phase, the airlines will be provided space at the New Delhi railway station for the purpose of installing reservation computer terminals. Indian Railways will give priority in giving confirmed reservation to the requests received from both the carriers for Indrail passes sold by them against the foreign tourist quota.

The connectivity between the computer systems of the two airlines and that of Indian Railways at the application level will be considered in the second phase on terms mutually agreed between the parties.

The signatories to the MoU were Civil Aviation Secretary M Kaw, Indian Airlines Chairman and Managing Director P C Sen, Air-India Managing Director Michael Mascarenhas, Railway Board member (traffic) Shanti Narain and its additional member (tourism and catering) B M S Bisht.

The MoU comes into force with immediate effect. A formal accreditation agreement, to be entered into, will deal with the modalities relating to operational aspects and procedural matters.

UNI

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