Ajira Airways: the new Lost ARG

A closer inspection of the aforementioned changes to the Ajira Airways website reveals… well, quite a lot. But what it all means — that’s the real question. Let’s break it down.

On the Ajira homepage, you’ll find this brief video:

My complete analysis of the video and the website are right after the jump.

Embedded in that video around the 5 second mark is a quick-cut still image of a limo driver holding up a sign that says “316″ right next to some letters written in an Oriental script (if anyone knows what these letters mean, please fill the rest of us in). We already know that episode 5.07 is titled “3:16,” and the most obvious connection to this title is the Bible verse John 3:16 (which, incidentally, was inscribed on Mr. Eko’s “Jesus stick” back in Season 2, but I digress). John 3:16 reads:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

According to the Lostpedia Blog, this entire verse — exactly as I’ve transcribed it here — is tucked away in hexidecimal code in the site’s source HTML. Are the powers that be at Lost trying to tell us that Ajira Airways is going to play an important part in the 7th episode of Season 5? Or does it mean something else?

The Flights page of the Ajira website is your standard air travel reservation form, where you input the dates and locations of your travel details and it pulls up matching flights. So far everything I’ve input returns with a message saying, “All flights are booked at this time.” But maybe a certain combination of dates and destinations will work…

Things get more interesting on the Destination Destiny page. It’s a promotion for a discount travel package that promises to whisk you “away to an unknown fateful destination of your destiny,” where you can “get lost in the wild wonder of the world and let time and space have no consequence.” The basic idea is that Ajira is promoting a clever travel option that’s supposedly suited to those who want to travel with a sense of mystery and excitement. For just $87 (a number that’s sure to have some significance), Ajira will take you on a trip where you’ll have no idea where you’re going until you arrive. They promise “the adventure of a lifetime.” What does all of that double-speak point to? Well golly gee, let me think.

Next is the Ajira Adventures page, which purports to list a variety of destination packages that will suit any adventurous spirit. Four different types of adventures are shown, each one of them different (one is a “Polar Adventure,” for example, while another invites you to go “Swimming With Sharks”). Each of these adventures was posted by an “Antonio B. MacCutcheon,” a name new to Lost lore. (I ran a Google search for the name and turned up nothing.)

Most interesting on the Adventures page is a downloadable PDF instruction pamphlet explaining how to make your own origami ball. A subtle hint suggests using your boarding pass to craft origami while on your flight, and if you print the sample boarding pass from the Destination Destiny page, and then “peek inside” the tiny hole in the origami ball as the instructions suggest, you’ll find the letters GUM are visible. GUM the airport code for Guam, one of Ajira’s primary destinations. (And all of Ajira’s destinations, by the way, correspond with the places of origin of major characters from the show — all but Guam, that is.) Does this mean Guam will play some kind of role in Season 5? Or just in the ARG?

The final page, About Us, contains a few not-so-subtle hints about Lost‘s future, with lines like, “The skies have no limit with our new destinations beginning January 21st.” 1/21 being, of course, the date that Lost Season 5 premieres.

One other thing. Lostpedia Blog noticed that every page on the site seems to have hexidecimal code that, when translated, says something different. Each one is likely a clue:

• one is a quote from the book Ulysses by James Joyce
• another reads, “Where America’s Day Begins,” which is the official motto of Guam
• a third hex code translates to “pineapples in Hawaii”… no idea what that’s about
• and the most cryptic translates as “supersonic is commercial thirty till meridian”

Can you assemble these disparate clues to figure out what it all means?

Do you care enough to spend the time?

These “Alternate Reality Games” (or ARGs, as they’re called) divide fans into two camps: those who pour over every detail to fish out any possible clues, and those who find the whole thing a silly waste of time that adds little to the experience of the show. At the end of the day, reality is probably somewhere in between; the best ARGs, like The Lost Experience — which explained quite a lot about the Dharma Initiative and the cursed numbers — can add some nifty layers to a show’s mythology, providing answers that the show proper doesn’t have time for. On the other hand, you have ARGs like Find 815, which was a fun diversion and well made, but ultimately added nothing even remotely essential to the show.

Which category the “Ajira Airlines” ARG falls under is ultimately up to you. What do you think so far? Post your thoughts and theories in the Comments section below.

Video: Copyright 2008 ©American Broadcasting Company.