In addition to the monsoon mania, by year-end, the carrier will put its Sahara Holidays packages on its website, to target the international traveller and woo them through convenience in bookings and itinerary-planning.

Then, in a bid to kick off the pre-Millennium party early, Sahara has started preparations forMillennium travellers. The airline plans to set up a Millennium Club, members of which will be aggressively targeted from October '99 onwards. Currently, the airline is holding discussions with various hotels for designing customised packages.

For now though, the big buzz is the city lounges--Sahara will be the first airline in the country to offer the facility. Targeted at upscale business travellers, Sahara Enterprise will be a virtual office, which would offer a boardroom for holding meetings, secretarial services, internet access, and even an entertainment alcove.

``A Mumbai-Delhi passenger who is returning the same day can rotate his appointments from Sahara Enterprise,'' says Kaul. ``Besides, for services like telephone calls the passenger won't have to pay astronomical amounts.'' Sahara is also holding discussions with banks to set up ATM facilities at these lounges and plans to set up an exclusive entertainment cell at each lounge, by next year.

Since April '99, Sahara has intensified itsmarketing thrust by sending personalised mailers to 1,500 corporates on the the benefits offered by the airline in terms of pricing, packages or value-added services.

Sahara expects to carry 2,200 passengers per day one way during July-September 30, 1999. For the corresponding period last year, Sahara flew on average, 2,000 passengers per day one way. ``We did over 57 per cent net occupancy during this period last year,'' says Kaul. ``Our passenger carrying capacity should increase by a minimum of 20 per cent compared to last year.''

Sahara claims that its penetrative pricing strategy during April-June 1999 has helped the airline increase market share by two per cent, up to nine per cent and boosted its passenger load factor by about 14-15 per cent, over the corresponding period last year. In the over-heated Delhi-Mumbai sector, it has answered Jet Airway's and Indian Airlines' new fare of Rs 3,800 by slashing the one-way fare from Rs 4,111 to Rs 3,555 and tagging it with a Rs 500 gift with effect fromJuly 6, 1999.

For some sectors like Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Calcutta, Delhi-Chennai, and Delhi-Dibrugarh, Sahara has stuck to the original fare, but for other routes it has increased the fare: From July 1 to September 30 1999, the one-way farefor Delhi-Lucknow has been upped from Rs 2,222 to Rs 2,600; for Delhi-Guwahati from Rs 5555 to Rs 5999; and for Delhi-Goa from Rs 5,999 to Rs 6,555. Clearly, while Sahara is giving a generous discount in the highly competitive Delhi-Mumbai sector, it is turning tight-fisted elsewhere.

Will Indian Airlines' 7-Plus stave off monsoon blues?

Indian Airlines (IA) is banking on the 7-Plus mantra to beat the sluggish monsoon season. Following the launch of its new marketing initiative on July 1, 1999, IA's passenger load factor (PLF) in the Mumbai-Delhi sector jumped to a high of 80 per cent on July 3, 1999. However, it's a volatile business: on July 5, 1999, IA's PLF for Mumbai-Delhi had dropped to 60.75 per cent. And the competition is tough: Jet Airways launched ame-too promotion called Jet Plus on July 3, 1999, and Sahara Airlines slashed its Mumbai-Delhi fare on July 6, 1999 for the Mumbai-Delhi route--not to mention Air India's deepest discount of all.

Nevertheless, says an IA source: ``We expect the 7-Plus initiative to boost our PLF in major metros by 12 per cent during July to September 1999, up from 52.8 per cent during April-June 1999.'' On July 6, 1999 the carrier's national PLF was 64.22 per cent. The 7-Plus scheme entitles a passenger who completes seven sectors on the major metro flights during July 1 and September 30, 1999, one free return ticket to any of the 16 international destinations where IA operates. ``This scheme can't be matched by the competition as none of them has a presence oversees,'' says an Indian Airlines source.

The airline offers, on an average, 7,000 seats on the major metros per day. For the period of July-September 1997-98 on all India-basis, IA carried 18,000-19,000 passengers per day, while the number dropped to between 17,000to 18,000 per day in 1998-99. ``With this scheme we intend to arrest this drop,'' says the source.

For the Mumbai-Delhi route where competition is fierce, IA has brought the fare down to Rs 3,800 for the month of July '99, from Rs 5,110. ``Apart from targeting business travellers, we also intend to attract first class railway passengers (on the Delhi-Mumbai route) to sample Indian Airlines with this tactical pricing,'' says the source, adding: ``Going by the encouraging signs, we may even continue the 7-Plus offer after the scheduled period of July-September.'' IA hopes a fair number of its 95,000 frequent fliers would be enticed by this scheme too.