Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Airport Vocabulary
Airport Vocabulary
1. Airline
Definition: The company that you are travelling with. For example, British Airways, Singapore
Airlines, Ryanair, United Airlines
Example sentence: ‘What airline are you flying with today?’
‘I’m flying with American Airlines.’
2. Arrivals
Definition: The part of the airport where people exit from the plane
Example sentence: “Can you tell me where arrivals is, please?”
“Certainly. This is departures, so you need to go downstairs for arrivals.”
10. Customs
Definition: the place where you show your passport after you arrive at your destination
Example sentence: “We just need to collect our bags at baggage reclaim, and then we will leave the
airport.”
11. Delayed
Definition: when the airplane will not leave at the correct time
Example sentence: “Because of the terrible weather, our flight was delayed for three hours.”
12. Departures
Definition: the place where you get on the plane
Example sentence: “The taxi took me to arrivals instead of departures, so I was late.”
13. Departure lounge
Definition: the final place where you wait to get on the plane, after the security check
Example sentence: “Only passengers can go into the departure lounge.”
14. Domestic
Definition: journeys that stay inside the same country
Example sentence: “We must go to domestic departures because we are flying from New York to los
Angeles. The departures here are all international.”
15. Flight
Definition: the journey by airplane
Example sentence: “Our flight leaves at 10 a.m. and arrives at 6 p.m.”
16. Fragile
Definition: an item that can break easily
Example sentence: “If you have any fragile items in your suitcase, write ‘fragile’ on the bag and take
it to the special check-in.”
17. Gate
Definition: the place where you get on the plane
Example sentence: “Our flight is leaving from Gate 47, so we need to walk for ten minutes to get
there.”
18. Identification / I.D.
Definition: documentation with your photograph and personal details
Example sentence: “Please can you present a valid I.D. before you are allowed to check-in.”
19. Last call
Definition: the final opportunity to board the plane
Example sentence: “This is the last call for Ryanair Flight 123 to Barcelona. Will passengers please
got to Gate 54 immediately.”
20. Luggage
Definition: your bags (the word ‘luggage’ is uncountable, so you cannot say ‘two luggages’ – two
bags is correct)
Example sentence: “We had a lot of luggage when we went to New York as we have three children
and we were going for three weeks.”
22. On time
Definition: the plane will depart at the correct time
Example sentence: “Even though the weather was very bad, the plane left on time.”
23. One-way
Definition: a ticket that takes you in one direction only
Example sentence: “I have a one-way ticket because I am not coming back.”
25. Priority boarding
Definition: to have a ticket that allows you to get on the plane first
Example sentence: “When you have small children, it’s normal to have priority boarding so you can
get on the plane before everybody else.
26. Stopover
Definition: when you stay in a place in between your flights
Example sentence: “When we flew from London to Sydney, we had a one-night stopover in
Singapore.”
27. Terminal
Definition: the airport building
Example sentence: “Most big airports have more than one terminal. London Heathrow has four
terminals.”
28. Trolley
Definition: the machine you use to transport your bags inside the airport
Example sentence: “I have three big suitcases so I needed a trolley to move them.”
29. To upgrade
Definition: to improve the quality of your seat on the airplane
Example sentence: “When we arrived at the airport, we got a free upgrade to business class.”
30. Visa
Definition: official permission to enter a country
window seat, aisle seat, fasten/unfasten your seat belt, to go through customs