Leaving On A Jet Plane? French Airport Vocabulary
Many of us have had to spread our wings a little further over the past few years to find suitable flights back to the UK.. This year, Covid 2021, travel has to be thoughtful and cautious., but travellers are slowly heading back towards the airports.
If you’re lucky, once you get to the airport, there isn’t really that much to say: hand over your boarding pass, your vaccination passport and negative test (How similar is this to taking a dog abroad?) glide through security (if you’re not wearing an underwired bra), and settle down with a large G&T to await take-off.
However, sometimes it doesn’t all run quite so smoothly, particularly in winter, and it’s useful to have a bit of local lingo to find out what’s going on.
The Airport
Airline – une compagnie aérienne
Terminal – une aérogare
Departures – les départs
Arrivals – les arrivées
Check-in – l’enregistrement
Boarding – l’embarquement
Duty-free – la boutique hors taxes
Security check – contrôle de sécurité
Gate – une porte (d’embarquement)
Runway – la piste
Some verbs
To take-off/a take-off – décoller/un décollage
To land/a landing – atterrir/ un atterrissage
To board – embarquer
To disembark – débarquer
To check in luggage – enregistrer (les bagages)
You might be asked about….
Plane ticket – le billet d’avion
Boarding pass – la carte d’embarquement
Hand luggage – baggage à main
People
Air-traffic controller – contrôleurs aériens
Baggage handler – un bagagiste
Crew – L’équipage
Pilot– pilote
Flight attendants – hôtesses/stewards
Your flight might be….
A l’heure – on time
Retardé – delayed
Annulé – cancelled
Arrivé – arrived
Atterri – landed
You might also need…
An aisle seat – un siège (du côté) couloir
A window seat – Un siège (du côté) hublot
A shuttle – une navette
A stopover – une escale
A table tray – la tablette
Useful phrases
Combien de temps dure le vol?
How long is the flight?
J’ai seulement un bagage à main
I just have one piece of hand luggage.
Le vol a combien de retard?
How much is the flight delayed?
Pourquoi le vol est-il annulé/retardé?
Why is the flight cancelled/delayed?
