Newstrack

TIDS membership, now from India

IATA targets 400 members by 2007, up from current 44

Reema Sisodia - Mumbai

IATA India aims to vault its current TIDS (Travel Industry Designator Service) membership from 40 to 400 non-IATA agents within a year now that it has been empowered to offer the membership out of India, April onwards. Until now, all membership applications had to be referred to Singapore (IATA to offer TIDS to sub-agents from India- story on page 20). The TIDS number will help identify non-IATA agents and enable them to be recognised by airlines as travel partners.

Initially when issued from Singapore, the entire process of attaining TIDS took approximately a month, but with the Mumbai office issuing the same the process has been brought down to seven days. Sources within IATA's Mumbai office reveal, "The decision of issuing TIDS from India will only work to the advantage of the Indian sub-agents. This new development will also in a way help them get more regulated in their functioning. The TIDS number will ensure that the sub-agents would be on the IATA mailing list. They would also get access to the website of IATA and in general would be a more active part of the system."