Says Ms Vandana Bhargava, deputy director (workers), Air Sahara: ``Air Sahara crew will have a new uniform by March-end (currently, the colour co-ordination is: purple, green and maroon). Also, in line with our new look, there will be an enhanced focus on strengthening the traditional Indian hospitality and catering.''

Air Sahara will add two more aircraft to its fleet of six by March 2001. The airline has plans to build a fleet of 20 aircraft by the year-end. The expansion is expected to quadruple its flights services by the year-end from 35 flights a day.

``Our priority list is to develop a strong IT backbone for our airline,'' says Ms Bhargava. ``We're looking at significant investments in advanced inventory control and revenue accounting packages and also, new communication systems for passengers.''

Ms Bhargava adds that there is a proposal to make all information - pertaining to Air Sahara's flight schedule and packages - available to consumers on-mobile. Ms Bhargava says that the airline will also finalise flight schedule for its new Calcutta-Mumbai and Calcutta-Delhi route by February-end. The new routes, besides an intense focus on the Mumbai-Delhi, are expected to give a boost to the airline's marketshare of around 15 per cent.

Ms Bhargava also said that any decision on launching Sahara Connect could be taken only in the second phase of expansion next year. ``Right now we're focused on bringing efficiencies in our operations. On-time performance is usually in the region of 92 per cent to 98 per cent. Also, there has beenno cancellations since the last couple of months,'' she points out.