Lagoon Air "The stories you know should be fake, but are not."

[Carde]

Lagoon Air

It is a humid hot evening as a TU-154M rolls to the gate, it is painted in a very clean white with just Lagoon Air written on it, not much to see about it really. The 30 year old plane has no issues coming to a smooth stop and soon the engines spool down as they are being shut off as the uniformed ground crews come in to hook up the ground power and deal with all the other matters at hand.

Passengers disembark from plane smoothly, some travel alone others are talking amongst themselves in groups or pairs and some kids are also in the mix. At the exit stands a woman dressed in a greatcoat, she watches the passengers leave and when the last have done so she walks onto the plane where in the back in cuffs a man is waiting. He reeks of alcohol and has a lovely big bump on his head from when the cabin crew forced him down. “Let me go you bloody witches!” he shouts in some British accent or the other. The out burst ends when the woman in the greatcoat grabs him by his collar and lifts him from the jump seat up to his toes, “Shut up you pathetic worm.” she says and tosses him down the centre ile.

Just as he wants to try and crawl up a combat boot on his back forces him to kiss the carpet again, “Sorry I am late, had idiot making a scene about being late for his flight. I assume this is our latest trouble maker?” a female voice speaks. The woman in the greatcoat turns around, “Indeed two hands, how about you take him along and we can conduct a costumer satisfaction review before we hand him over to the civil servants.”

“Sounds like a plan. Come up you idiot and walk along, you don’t want to cause more trouble believe me. You see out here there are 2 rules, 1 you do not insult the king and 2 you do not cause trouble. You broke rule 2.” The woman addressed as two hands says and the British man manages to get up his feet. “You are all insane, I did nothi…” he starts to shout again, but before he can get far a knee from two hands smashes into his chest sending him collapsing onto the floor again. “British, always the god damn Brits.” two hands notes. “Please don’t make him throw up on the carpet, it is a bitch to clean.” The woman in the greatcoat notes casually as she grabs the man and drags him onto his feet again, “vesti sebya!” she shouts in Russian and it seems the man is either sobering up a little or to much in pain to protest much as he moves along.

Once of the plane they quickly head for one of the doors to the staff hallways, a pair of police officers give them a polite nod and soon they enter an office area. Once there a few heads turn to acknowledge them and then go back to work as they move into a small meeting room where two hands removes the cuffs before pushing him into a chair. “I leave this to you, call me when it is time to hand him over.” the woman in the greatcoat notes and heads out. “You got it Balalaika.”

3 Hours later after a phone call and some activities in the meeting room Balalaika returns, “All done Revy?” she asks ignoring the whimpering man on his chair. “5 Stars across the board, haven’t we earned that Mike or what?” Revy says with a smile as Mike just weakly nods. “Did he settle the score as well?” Balalaika asks, “In full with tip.” Revy replies with the same smile. “Alright I will send him outside then, no need to involve the authorities now is there Mike? I mean getting stuck in a Thai prison really sucks I can tell you.” Mike looks up a little and shakes his head, “No madam no need for that, just please let me go.” Balalaika turns to Revy, “Wonderful, I will escort him out.”

Once they go through the door into the airport proper again Balalaika looks at Mike, “Your bags will be at our service desk post security, have a nice stay and stay out of trouble.” and with that she turns back through the door leaving Mike alone who looks like he is very much regretting his choice of vacation destination.

[Carde]

Some reviews:

***** 5 STARS! Amazing airline, free food, excellent curries and free booze on the flight a backpackers dream in south east Asia!

***** Cannot give it any less, was dubious at first, but first class interiors, really relaxing, professional staff and they fly on time.

***** 5 Stars I had some issue on the flight, but the staff where quick and polite in their response, truly amazing in how they handle situations.

***** This one was a hard one to rate, but when I saw the cabin crew tackle a drunk like some spec ops people I was sold, they really want you to enjoy your flight and don’t want others to suffer because of 1 person. Hell they even managed to get a crying baby really quiet and then to sleep, never seen anything like it.

***** 5 Stars without a doubt specially if you love to experience some older planes without all of the downsides, safe for the extra noise you could have believed to be onboard one of those dream liners.

***** (Edited from *) Missed my flight, staff was really professional about the situation and sorted it all out, cannot recommend them enough!

***** Curries are just made for planes, all the spice really works and they even brought me a new jacket when I spilled some during some turbulence.

***** We got a fighter escort on the way into Bangkok, was amazing was told it was because we where on just the 100th flight the company had operated. You would not believe they are so young seeing how professional they are.

***** Free drinks, free food, free wifi what is not to like specially at this price point it cannot be beaten no idea how they can stay in business like this, but I would not complain and neither should you!

[DrKartoffelsalat]

Review of Lagoon Air:

***** / 5

Excellent service, fantastic organic produce offerings in flight. Staff is very happy to accomodate special requests. Turbulence provided fantastic back massage. 11/10 would fly again!

Just be aware that thai TSA like to fondle your testicles for souvenirs. I recommend the on board shop!

[Carde]

It is the early hours of the morning a time when everything save but the night crawlers tend to be asleep and even airports tend to be early quiet most of the time. However on the far end of the field colorful lights flash through the hanger windows of the larger Lagoon Air maintenance hangar and as you get closer you can hear the music, it sounds like a full on rave and well that is pretty much exactly what it is. As you get in after the security gives you a stern look the music is almost deafening, but the crowd doesn’t seem to mind one bit as people are going wild on the music and the DJ who has his booth on the wing of one of the Tu-154Ms undergoing refit is making sure the crowd never dies down.

A makeshift bar on one end and a bunch of old aircraft seats are standing around used by those who need a brief break of it all. An other plane of the same type in one of the corners has some stairs leading into it and you do not need to think twice about what is happening inside there. For now though you head to the bar drop some notes and soon you have a drink and your capsule. The Lagoon air raves are after all known for offering more than drinks and it being on the airport and hence pre customs, well who cares right? The DJ is changes a little trying to do his best scooter impersonation, it is not amazing, but you know in 15 minutes you could not care less and will join the crowd in dance.

Some offices and walkways are suspended high in the hangar and on one of those walkways sits a woman with a smoke in 1 hand and a glass of rum in the other. A young man in a shirt bows towards her ears to speak in order to be head over the music, “All is going well, this was a great idea we can sell the product at consumer prices instead of wholesale.” The woman nods with a smile, “Indeed this will add a nicely little bonus to the bottom line, of course the others will not like us taking their business, but with things as they are we will soon be the only reliable supply chain so they will just have to swallow their dislike and deal with it.” “Indeed madam.” the man replies standing up again and walking to the railing to look down over the edge at the dancing crowd.

Not much later the woman join him, “Did you speak to Eda yet?” she asks. “Yes, but it is hard we really need a direct link with the EU nations and the US before they will truly be keen on it.” the man replies lighting himself a cigarette. “So it seems, I will have to see if Dutch can pull some magic for us. Anyhow I am going to grab some fresh air, keen an eye on things.” with that she leaves and walks to a door leading to some stairs to the roof of the hangar.

Once outside she sits down on the roof overlooking the airport and city, “Gotta love this place.” she says to herself refilling her glass with rum and lighting up a fresh smoke.

[Carde]

“For fucks shake these idiots are late again!” the angry voice comes from a man as flicks away a burned up cigarette. “Take it easy Dave you know how they are, always late, but also always bringing the goods and you know the boss lady rather have us be late than empty handed.” An other one replies looking through a pair of binoculars over the empty plain where they landed on a makeshift runway. “I know Troy, but it still annoys me, I got some booze and warm company waiting for me unlike this cold over he…” before Dave can finish he grabs his chest in shock and then drops death to the ground. Lucas has just enough time to turn his head to see what it was and for his brain to pick up the sharp crack of the rifle shot before a second round finds him and sends him to the same faith.

The plane suddenly comes to live as the engines start to spool up, more shots impact it and at least one disables one of the engines, but it is the shots into the cockpit that seal the faith of the crew. 10 minutes later several pick ups arrive on the scene and men storm the plane power the engines off and take the money with them before making their way out.

Back at Lagoon HQ, “Where the fuck is our plane, I know those tossers are always late, but this is just taking the piss.” The voice comes from the woman we met earlier at the rave, though this time she seems to be anything, but relaxed as she takes a big puff from her cigarette, “I have had enough get Balalaika and a bunch of her people down there, grab the HS-LAN she is still awaiting refit anyway and tell her not to come back empty handed.”

A larger black man nods seemingly more relaxed, “Of course Miss Zane, anything else I should tell her?” The woman we now know at least is named Zane looks up, “Yes Dutch tell her to do whatever the hell it takes, I don’t know what happened, but if some one moved against us I don’t want her to hold back a thing.” The man now know as Dutch nods the on paper CEO of Lagoon Air clearly has some one else to answer to. “Will handle it.” and with that he leaves the room and with it Zane alone whom lights up an other cigarette. “Twas all going to damn smooth and to smooth is never a good thing.” she grabs her phone and hits Revy’s number the answering is swift from the other side, “Get your sweet cheeks to my office I need you to get a handle on something for me.”

TBC

[Carde]

“There is the bird capitan.” One of the pilots of the HS-LAN points at the missing Tu-154M sitting at the end of the makeshift runway. “Not much to from here, we will have to get on the ground, at least it seems there is no around this forsaken place. Bring us down Lt.”. “Of course Capitan, everyone belt up this strip is rough and short.”

10 minutes later the plane comes to a stop not to far from her missing sister. The uniformed troops disembark and form a clear perimeter with a pair even climbing onto the top of the plane for a better view over the plains. “Well I guess there is not much question about what happened here.” Balalaika mentions as she pushed her foot against the body of Dave. “That is sniper work, not something light either.” One of the men says as he takes a closer look.

A bit later the men climb out of the plane that was hit, “The outside gave a hint to what happened to the pilots and the cash is gone.” one states. “Tracks are going south south east.” one of the scouts reports just after and Balalaika just takes it in calmly, “Sanitize this scene and set charges for the plane, we leave in an hour and I want nothing here being able to be linked back to us. After that we need to form a plan on our retaliation cause this cannot and will not be left unanswered.” With those orders the men get to work, the bodies are packed up any any DNA evidence is carefully destroyed and anything within the plane that can be linked to anyone is carefully stripped out where possible or destroyed where not.

An hour later the team departs again and as they climb a dry tud of an explosion rips the plane to shreds on the ground and the fuel ensures for a grand inferno which will take care of the rest.

Back at HQ Miss Zane stands at the windows of her office starting out over the city with a glare that would give Lucifer himself cold shivers.

[Carde]

Lagoon Air, Something different

So as you all know I travel a lot for my job which can be fun, but also is as always equally exhausting specially on trips like I just had. To set the stage I was in Seoul on a job to aid some clients and as luck would have it I was done early. Of course no good deed ever goes unpunished so I get a call from HQ that they need some one in Bangkok tomorrow cause something is going south and I am the closet person. So amused as ever they send me some tickets on the only flight they been able to source with just hours of notice. I print out my boarding passes not even paying attention till I notice a name I had personally never heard of: Lagoon Air.

Now as anyone who does like their airplanes and airlines does I naturally went to google to find out more about Lagoon Air. First off to their website which is plain and simple, not much to it really, they note they are a young airline based in Bangkok Thailand and service destinations in Asia and the Middle East. What I did notice was their fleet all Tu-154Ms, not exactly confidence inspiring for sure seeing they are rather small and old planes without the best safety reputation. Anyhow back to google and let’s take a look at some reviews, didn’t expect much for such a fresh entry into the market, but damn they have a ton of reviews and I been looking through them all and not been able to find a single review that was not a 5 star review. This certainly peaked my interest certainly with planes of this age alone people would complain about noise and what not. Anyhow that was for me to discover as I packed my back, called the reception for a very early wake up call and breakfast as my plane was departing at 0755.

Next morning, still sleepy from a short night I arrive at the airport and go through the usual steps, the check in agent was friendly and local so far so good. Just over 30 minutes prior to departure the plane arrives at the gate, it seems Lagoon Air is a fan of a quick turn around, though I also notice a 6 man strong cleaning crew on the ground. The people leaving the plane seem to be a rather good mood with smiles and laughter, though I cannot help, but pick up a faint sent I cannot really place. Anyhow boarding starts with me being booked into one of the few business class seats I get in first and quickly find myself seated by a rather let’s say athletic looking lady flight attended. The interior has to be said is amazing, it is clean, modern and in visual appeal and quality ranks among st the best I have seen, a step up from the admittedly clean, but boring exterior of the plane. The boarding process is done with efficiency windows in, everything seems to be done with an almost military efficiency. As people are seated I am offered a drink, however it being early morning I opt for a coffee instead which arrives soon and for airplane coffee I have to say it is pretty darn good.

Soon we are pushed back and get in the air, sitting up front the noise is not really an issue with all the engines in the tail of aircraft and I will be honest the interior made me forget I was flying from what I learned a 30 year old plane build in what was still Soviet Russia at the time. Though perhaps the accent of the crew might have given a hint to it, while there where some Thai people in the crew, the pilots and attended up front where clearly not from around these parts. I could see in the back they where walking drinks and food around regulairy and taking orders, up front I was told if I wanted anything to just signal and my order would be taken, which I made use of to get an other breakfast in and ask if they had wifi onboard after which I was pointed to my boarding pass which had the wifi information on it. The wifi btw is completely free and unlimited.

Throughout the flight I had some snacks and also some lunch and going to Thailand you cannot not get yourself a nice curry so that is what I did and damn it was amazing, with all of this being both free and of excellent quality I could start to make some sense of all the reviews. Still was that all the reason for it, the question came back when I needed to visit the (sparkling clean) toilet and took an other look into the economy section with some passenger seeming to have a really good time and some others seeming to be in a whole other world. I still cannot help but feel that something is off about Lagoon Air, but really outside of that the experience has indeed been 5 star worthy, the service is excellent, the plane is sparkling clean inside and out, the food and drinks are all top quality (I did sneak in a single glass of rum) and that just means that outside of flying some old planes there is really nothing to mark them down on. I am sure next time I have no issues flying with them, however time will tell for now I got a situation to solve and hopefully after that I can go back home to LA and enjoy some time in my own bed.

[Carde]

The humidity on the makeshift airfield in the middle of the jungle was pressing on everyone save for some of the locals who where used to it. The ones who where not used to it clearly where the Russian staff working on a pair of TU-22Ms under the watchful eyes of miss Balalaika and miss Zane smoking a cigar and cigarette respectively. “I would ask you how, but I think I am not going to.” Miss Zane said with a grin on her face looking at the scene in front of her. “A Juni you know me besides fit some civilian transponders and on the radar no one is going to tell one of these apart from a Tu-154M which thanks to your exploits have become rather common in these parts.” Balalaika replies with a humorous tone. “But tell me has mister Chang been cooperative recently?”

“I believe Miss two hands has been able to get us what we needed to know.” Juni replies waving Balalaika over to follow her to a map table. “There are 2 key camps, the one south east is home to the people that decided they rather work on their own, Chang had little issue with telling us about them of course. However I had a feeling there was more to it and indeed it seems mister Chang owned some debts so he settled that by allowing these people to steel our money and then have his people in the camp more up North take it through some agreement.”

Balalaika takes a careful look over the map, “So I gather by your request for something to flatten both of these means you are after revenge more than the money?” she then asks. “O no I fully plan to collect what I am owed from mister Chang, after tomorrow he will be so deep in my pockets he will struggle to breath for the rest of his stupid life. The Triads should learn that this new kid does not retract her claws.” Juni replies flicking the but of her cigarette away. “You do know that favors like this.” Balalaika waves her hand to the 2 bombers, “are hard to come by right?” “Of course mon capitan, but they don’t know that all they know is some one just dropped several tons of high explosive on 2 drug labs and storage sites for stealing some millions in cash.” Juni replies with devlish smile before lighting a new smoke. “And people say I scare them.” the comment is as dry as could be from Balalaika.

[Carde]

A very muddy Lagoon

Lagoon Air is a Thai airline based in Bangkok on the older Don Mueang International Airport. They operate a fleet currently of Tupolev Tu-154M and Boeing 777-200LR jets with the former owned and the later leased or so it is reported. On paper the CEO is Dutch Karoon, though whom is really in charge is a unknown as are many things about Lagoon Air. Such is the mystery and miss information around the airline that we titled this piece as we did cause despite out best efforts finding actually verifiable information is next to impossible.

It all started rather shortly after the foundation of the airline, as with all new airlines we are interested about their story. However Lagoon Air was not interested in talking to anyone, they said they wanted to focus on their operations and not on a bunch of interviews. A rather strange reply as most start up airlines we spoke to in the past saw it as a bit of free marketing, though considering the ‘success’ of Lagoon Air they perhaps didn’t need this. Still talks or not we couldn’t let this one slide so we went to do some investigating on this airline and soon it became clear this was not an normal operation.

The first thing we noticed was that there are 2 main ways to book tickets with Lagoon Air, the first is the usual website of the airline and ticket seller websites etc etc. When you look at those you see your standard as expected prices and nothing seems of, however there are also some backpacker forums and other places on the internet where they hang out and share advice and on there we learned that a ticket Tokyo to Bangkok could be had for just 50 bucks. To get those tickets you had to call a number, give them your details, they would then send you an email asking for the other information they need and with that done you could go to a number of points in cities to which they fly and pay there and get your ticket. Of course we had to try this and did so in multiple places and well let’s say the pick up points are a wild mix of places from a cigar shop to a fancy restaurant or just your local moms and paps store. We tried to talk to the owners and staff of those places, but none wanted to comment on it, except for 1 staff member whom was willing to share a few bits and he told us that the money we spend for the ticket actually goes into the pockets of the store owners, the airline gets nothing off the money at all.

So 1 week into our investigation and we learned that Lagoon Air apparently can sell quite the number of tickets for nothing as far as income to their business. With this knowledge in hand we went to Lagoon Air again to ask them for comment, once again they refused to talk to us. However the next morning one of us got a package at their hotel, it was a small box with a single hornet inside and a note that read: “This is one, but you are poking in places that will release more. Suggest you accept our gift to cover your inconvenience and stop poking your heads where they do not belong.” So it seems both the vinegar and the honey in one swoop, it is worth nothing that the second envelope contained 15,000 US dollars. With all this in hand we went to the police whom didn’t seem to care much and told us without any clear evidence of anything they couldn’t do anything and that we where free to keep the money. Now of course we have to admit that there is no way to link this message and Lagoon Air, but Lagoon Air was the target of our investigation.

Deciding to be more careful though we hired some tourist to check out the next thing the apparent rave parties in one of the Lagoon Air hangars. However the few we saw return where in no state to talk and when they cleared up they barely where able to remember anything, we assumed a lot of drugs was consumed which is not unheard of on raves period. Again we ended up with a useless lead, whenever we try to get anything on Lagoon Air it ends up being of no great use and seeing it is privately owned and in the good grace of the government there is not much else we can currently do to really dig into this airline further. Of course if you have information that could shed some light on their operations we ask you to contact us or use any of the anonymous means to sharing information on the internet. One thing is clear we are convinced Lagoon Air is not what it appears to be and we deserve to know the truth.

[Carde]

Last call

“Fucking hell you people are so tiresome!” The shout comes from Juni just before she squeezes the trigger of her Five-seveN and one of the men knelled on the ground slumps down. “So proud so stupid, don’t any of you idiots understand you are just cannon fodder to be used and discarded. See Mon Capitan over here figured that one out the hard way and here she was willing enough to let you find out the easy way, but no you have to play it hard and foolishly.” The 3 remaining people 2 men 1 woman look at Juni with a mix of fear and defiance. “NSA, Mi6 and AIVD, big kid, the bully and the tag along and of course your former CIA friend, but then I don’t think anyone likes the CIA.” the last note seems to extract a somewhat nervous chuckle from the room.

“I mean seriously I thought you lot had real jobs to do like pissing of Russia, hunting people of certain believes and all those important things, not worrying about a start up airline in Thailand.” Juni continuous speaking as she sits down on the armrest of a sofa. “An airline that flies in Russian Bombers to bomb China I think is of great interest, do you have any idea of the consequences such actions can have?” one of the men speaks up with a loud voice. Juni looks him in the eye before she calmly replies, “I know exactly the consequence, in fact I am enjoying the consequences right now. You see thanks to that one little raid I now own the triads here in Thailand, of course they will try to kill me still, but until then they will dance like the nice dolls they are.”

“I am sure the tons of drugs you are moving has nothing to do with anything either, scum of the earth the whole lot of you.” One of the others rebuts, “Scum of the Earth he tells us, yet his social media page screams in support of some racist thing in his tiny speck of a country that desperately is trying to cling on to whatever tread of glory it believes it still has. Seriously you are the sad little puppy the kid that doesn’t belong in the group and hence does anything to stay within it. No we are not the scum of the Earth we simply ensure a demand is supplied. Tell me miss 00 what does the ‘great’ British Empire think about us? I thought they would be to busy worrying about if they have a country left after this ultimate hold my beer moment they been having.”

The last person a woman looks Juni into her eyes, but doesn’t say a word which seems to amuse Juni, “See gentlemen this is one person that has honor and loyalty she knows not to speak. Of course I could make her speak, but well I don’t need to, we already know all we need to know as there are people who do understand the value of loyalty to governments who do not care about them.” With that said Juni looks at the men behind the prisoners, “Make the CIA one vanish, the NSA and AVID drug em up and cage them we can always trade them for a favor.”

“About miss 00?” Balalaika asks she had been standing behind Juni the entire time in silence. “I will be talking some more with her, remove her binds and bring her to my office I got a feeling we can get on 1 line.” Juni replies standing up and walking away, but just before she goes through the door she looks over her shoulder, “And feed the rest of these idiots some of the Colombians or whatever that should keep them entertained as we secure our operations.”

[Carde]

The Shady Business of Lagoon Air continuous

Aircraft leasing is a common practice in the industry specially for newer airlines that simply do not have the capital available to outright purchase airplanes from the manufacturers or even used from brokers or other airlines who are upgrading their fleets to newer models. Leases are done on both new and used aircraft and there are a choice of companies to use when leasing aircraft. With the choice around most airlines will likely lease from 1 or 2 companies and build a relationship with those companies in the hope to obtain better rates if they are proven to be a reliable customer. So with that knowledge and our previous article the moves made by Lagoon Air should raise more than a few questions.

One of our contacts in Bangkok gave us a call this early morning about the fact that there is a larger number of Boeing 777s of all variants and Airbus A350s of all variants flying into Don Mueang International Airport and pulling up at a recently constructed parking area and hangars. When checking the registration numbers he found that they are all registered to Lagoon Air and not only that upon further digging he learned it was just the tip of the iceberg of planes. Lagoon Air went from 10 Boeing 777-200LRs and 14 Tupolev Tu–154M jets (Leased and owned in that order) to a grand total of 80 aircraft pretty much overnight more than tripling their fleet. It is save to say that such an expansion is simply unheard off in the industry and should be next to impossible for various reasons, but it seems like before the rules do not apply to Lagoon Air.

As we mentioned in the first part of this article airlines tend to lease from 1 or 2 leasing companies and aircraft leasing companies are quite well known as it takes a lot of capital to be in that business so not many are. However the Lagoon Air leasing spree has seen planes leased from literally all over the world and all continents except for Antarctica. Not only is this already odd the fact that a large number of the companies from which they are leasing these planes didn’t seem to exist until a few weeks ago makes it even stranger. To add the cherry on top of this all it seems there was no requirement on the planes leased with them ranging from nearly brand new to old beasts which are barely worth more than their scrap and parts value, not something any sane business would ever consider leasing.

We have reached out to Lagoon Air for comment once more and if they reply we will update this article, but we do not expect a meaningful answer from the airline that seems to be a passenger darling. Truly one of the most shady businesses we ever have investigated and we sincerely hope authorities will take a proper look at this airline in depth for nothing about them makes any sense.

[Carde]

The great press conference

To say the room was crowded was an understatement, when the news came out Lagoon Air was to hold a press conference everyone made sure to be there after all the news articles about them where quite well known. With all the excitement and chatter most seemed to forget the presence of the man and woman standing guard at multiple spots with 2 each scanning the room with care. When the doors on the far end opened however things got quiet, the first one to enter through it was a large broad dark man, he was followed by 2 woman, 1 with scars on her face and the other with a with a bored look. They took the 3 seats at the desk and the man addressed the room:

“First off all I would like to thank you all for being here, I know you are all keen to learn more about Lagoon Air and to see if there is any truth to the tales being spun. However before I continue I would like to make clear that when 1 person speaks you are quiet and if you wish to speak next raise your hand and we will give you the word when we can.” he gave a look around the room, his tone was calm, yet powerful and he seemed pleased with the result.

“Alright first off I will make it clear that Lagoon Air is a completely legitimate privately owned company. I am not the owner I am the CEO and on my right you will find the head of customer relations Rebecca Lee, on my left our head of security miss Balalaika and myself I go by Dutch. We will answer any reasonable questions you may have in a bit, before that I would like to address the special ticket program we run. It is true that we sell tickets through less conventional channels, but we found that it is very effective in getting our name out there and get people onboard to fund the early days of our airline. It is difficult for a new airline to attract passengers without at least some track record and of course online reviews are absolutely crucial this day in age. Secondly our recent expansion through leases has indeed been done by pretty much looking for aircraft that would fit and where available and find parties willing to finance them and then lease them to our airline as we clearly are not in a position to buy such numbers of planes. So with those 2 key points mentioned I will open the floor.”

Alright people post your questions below and I shall answer to them

[DrKartoffelsalat]

A pale, young, longhaired reporter is called on first: "Hello, John Doe for Travel INSIDER: first off, congratulations on beeing awared best thai airline.

Our readers would like to know, what does the future hold for route expansion? What is the focus going to be? The business traveller or the vacation passenger?

Thank you."

[Carde]

Dutch looked at the reporter, "Thank you that was a pleasant price to receive as far as our plans for the future we are here in Thailand so that means while we have a growing business sector a lot of our travel is vacation travel. Now the advantage we have with this is that Thailand sees a lot of varied vacation travel from the backpacker to the people who want full 5 star treatment. So while we welcome and will cater to business travel, the focus shall remain on holiday travel. O I should notice we do see quite some business throughput travel so people who use us to go from point A to B with just a stop over here in Bangkok.

For route expansion we are looking to open up more routes all around with more EU and North America coverage likely as a initial focus, but we also plan to continue into Asia, South America and Africa. Opportunities for us are diverse. I hope that answers your question."

[Squigi1]

Would lagoon appreciate South Florida Airways to fly into DMK? As a peace offering we will bring some high value cargo from South America and in gratitude of it we will be willing to assist in the logistics of said cargo in and out of South America through Miami and into Continental United States

[Carde]

Looking to the next reporter Dutch replies calmly, “We do not own this airport so whomever wants to fly here will have to handle that with them and the local authorities. Now of course from a business point of view the less competition the better, but we believe we offer a compelling enough package and we are far from able to service all destinations possible so in that aspect more airlines operating to here would help us. However we are not looking to go into any agreement with other airlines at this point as we as can be seen very much like to operate in our own unique way and so far this has brought us great success.”

[DrKartoffelsalat]

A young, south-american looking gentleman stand up: “Are you planning on expanding your cargo operations to south-america and expand your service offers to other enterprises?”

[Carde]

Dutch looked over, “I do not think I fully understand your question sir, but we are planning as mentioned earlier to expand our operations to South America and this means passenger and any room we have for cargo onboard. At current time we are not planning to have a dedicate cargo transport side of our business.”

[Carde]

From an airport closed down just a few years ago to one opened up out of raw necessity to one that was boomed and expanding rapidly Don Mueang International Airport had gone through a lot in a very short span of time. Now however things seemed to be stepped up a few more gears with Lagoon Air a seemingly unstoppable if somewhat questionable force pouring money into new hangars and facilities like it was going out of fashion. The CEO simply known as Dutch was seen nearly 24/7 on the airport moving from hangars to offices to construction sights to keep taps on everything along with the rest of the rather colorful executive staff.

Along this mix was a woman who’s name was a mystery to the outside world, dressed in some cammo combat pants, a tank top shirt of black or brown colours and a pair of aviator sunglasses below her loose hair that had escape from the rough ponytail. Compared to some of the men and woman she was not the tallest around, but it was clear from their behavior she was actually the person in charge, the mysterious anonymous owner of Lagoon Air. Her name was Jun’ko Zane or Juni to those close to her and anyone with enough resources perhaps would be able to trace her back to a dozen or so other identities each which seem to vanish into the same thin air they where created from. As the group stood at one of the construction sights she flicked away the but of a cigarette and took hold of a phone handed to her by miss Balalaika, clearly a burner unit. Not much later she handed it back and a few words later most of the group dispersed in a hurry leaving just Dutch, Juni and Balalaika standing to look at the skeleton of what was to be an other new hangar for Lagoon Air.

Not far behind both runways where in full use with aircraft after aircraft landing and taking off, many of which naturally belonged to Lagoon Air traveling far and wide. What was note worthy though was the group of Tu-154Ms parked at the far end of the airport, the recent expansion had phased out the planes that started the Airline so very shortly ago, now they where al being cleaned and readied to be auctioned off. After spending some more time at the construction site the trio moved into a car and drove off across the airport back to the main hangar and nearby office facilities of Lagoon Air which to where being expanded to house the ever growing company. In ways the expansion while extreme and raising many questions was also quieting down some of the commentary cause certainly with a staff count now exceeding 3500 they could never keep any big secrets around for long if there where any. An other bonus was them hiring more local people which of course meant local government was going to like them just a bit more.

As the car pulled up at the hangar an other Lagoon Air plane took of, A A350-1000 heading for Melbourne, it made a clean bank and climb and soon was high up and out of clear sight, onboard passengers no doubt would enjoy all the luxuries that came for free with Lagoon Air and those in return would mean more 5 Star Reviews, cause that was at least 1 constant with Lagoon Air, always and forever a 5 Star rated airline.

[Carde]

Lagoon Air owner exposed!?

The ever shady airline Lagoon Air has been undergoing expansion at unseen and unheard of rates in the industry and all along they refuse to truly share any information of meaning. The recent press conference was nothing but a shamble nothing of meaning was said, no questions truly answered. However we have something for you today, we learned about the person who is truly behind Lagoon Air, not one of the public puppets but the one who truly calls the shots, her name is Jun’ko Zane a former Royal Navy Officer.

When we put in a request with the government to learn more about her though we where given a blacked out file with nothing worthwhile left unredacted. Not only that a few days later we had a larger group of police officers in our office who searched our files and questioned some of our staff. This is a direct attack on the free press and we have already made steps to take actions in regards to this. It all goes to show that whenever we dig deeper into Lagoon Air we come across obstacles which do their very best to prevent us from learning anything more.

However we decided not to let this rest and proceeded with our investigations from which we learned she only spend 3 legs at sea on various ships and the people we managed to track down who served with her remarked her as a flexible, but nothing special officer. They also noted how she never seemed to talk about herself or her past, not even among fellow officers or so the rumour went (Sadly we have been unable to find any officers who served with her and where willing to talk). It all makes it even more unusual that she would have such a seemingly short service live at sea, but such a heavily redacted file and insane response from the government on inquiries in regards to her.

Now this was already getting from strange to stranger, but then a contact within the service let us know that the government was actually trying to track her down and not protect her. So seemingly the owner of Lagoon Air is wanted by the Commonwealth, at least that is how much we have so far been able to figure out. We are trying to learn more as we go, but we have to be extremely cautious at this point as our worst fears in regards to Lagoon Air do not even seem to get close to match the reality of this airline and it’s mysterious owner Jun’ko Zane.

As always we asked Lagoon Air for comment and once again they have ignored our request. No matter the danger we feel we are actively in we will maintain proper journalistic integrity and give them a fair chance to reply before publication.