Birdres partners with IRCTC,
Enable rail ticket transactions through travel agents

New Delhi, 15 July, 2009: Birdres, a Business to Business distribution channel from the Bird Group, with content availability of various travel verticals, today announced strategic partnership with Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a public sector company owned by the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. Under the partnership, travel agents will have access to IRCTC inventory on the Birdres portal. This is the first time that IRCTC has partnered with any Global Distribution System (GDS) provider.

Apart from expanding the reach for IRCTC, it will provide travel agents with a single access platform for railway bookings. Travel agents need not use a credit card for their transactions. A pre-paid amount needs to be deposited with IRCTC thereby ensuring transaction security.

Online ticket bookings with the railways have grown more than 100% in the last year with over 25% of the entire railway ticket bookings being over the internet. This initiative is in sync with the recent announcements during the Rail Budget to make railway tickets available at more outlets for consumer convenience.

Ankur Bhatia, Managing Director, Amadeus India said, “About 75 million passengers booked their tickets on IRCTC, however a large proportion of the potential rail consumers do not have access to the internet or credit cards and debit cards. Therefore, there is a need to increase the spread of IRCTC to a wider consumer group.”

“Amadeus has over 20,000 booking agents who help millions of consumers in every part of the country meet their travel requirements. This partnership will help address this distribution challenge for the masses of the country”

About Birdres

A brand new B2B distribution channel from the Bird Group, with content availability of various travel verticals. Birdres allows the travel industry players to effectively manage all aspects of their content and payment needs in a flexible and easy to use solution. This website enables travel agents to sell Indian Rail content.Birdres.com enables the sale of Non GDS content –Indian Rail.
Features and benefits: • Simpler and easy booking process
• Real time inventory availability
• Convenient payment options
• Excellent back end support through 24x7 helpdesk
• Online MIS reports on performance, productivity & accounting
• Enhanced security with fraud prevention
• Back office integration

More information about Birdres is available at: www.birdres.com

Press Contacts

Ritu Bararia                
Corporate Communications
Ph: +91 11 30613300
Fax: +91 124 4610667
Email: rib@bird.in

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