[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Air India OKs new 150 agents in Riyadh " ids="77360,77359,77358"] By Mir Mohsin Ali RIYADH — Air India, India's national carrier, has authorized 150 new travel agents to issues tickets at a competitive fare, said Manager Kundan Lal Kotwal in an interactive and informative session held here. Kundan Lal welcomed the local travel agents and some community heads to the function and said, "For the betterment of Indian community living in Riyadh we have allotted 150 agents under the umbrella of Asfar Travel and will provide competitive fares compared to other airlines." He added that Air India takes great pride in serving its community across their network for every flight is full from Riyadh to Mumbai and Delhi, while most of the Saudis also prefer to travel with Air India. Kinsley Fernandez, reservation manager, gave details and said daily Air India is operating to Mumbai from Riyadh in week thrice, to Delhi, Trivandrum and Kochi twice respectively. He said Air India offers to get upfront passengers to be upgraded of the reservation office one day prior to departure at a charge of SR470. Tickets issued in RBD ‘E' is not eligible. Seat selection call reservation office to select at a charge of SR100 lounge at Delhi. These passengers are offered lounge at a nominal charge, transit passengers traveling to any domestic destination will avail seamless transfer within the same airport, and for the baggage allowance passenger traveling to Riyadh to any destination on AI to India is allowed to carry 40 kg checked in baggage, 07 kg hand baggage and 05 liters of Zamzam, additional baggage is charged at SR30 per kg, passenger traveling back to Saudi Arabia are allowed 30 kg checked in baggage 07 kg hand baggage. Kinsley gave the detail about the rules and procedures to the agents, APIS detail correct passport details to be incorporated under the PNR. Avoid SA/IN- put IN/IN and passenger mobile number in KSA and India to be incorporated under the PNR. He advised the agents to avoid debit notes and said that do not make reservation in multiple RBD's under same PNR, don't make reservation in higher RBD and waitlist in lower RBD under same PNR, don't re-book under canceled PNR, create new PNR to make reservation for passengers whose booking is canceled under time limit or any other reason, remove segment from GDS and don't block seats in fictitious names. Hamid, general manager, Asfar Travels welcomed the decision of Air India and received the gift given by Kundan Lal and the staff of Kanoo. Mohammed Rasheed, business development manager, also spoke on this occasion and said that last September the business of Air India went up and the credit goes to Kundan Lal. Danish Mustafa, regional travel manager, Kanoo, also spoke on this occasion. The community leaders who spoke and gave suggestions to Air India included Obaid ur Rahman, chairman, Bihar foundation, Salman Khalid, vice president, Aligarh Muslim University Old Boys Association (AMOUBA) and Mohammed Ashraf Ali, president, All India United Society.
