Dialogues in English for travellers: The airport.

Summer is coming and with it the long-awaited holidays, and many of you will choose a destination abroad, so you will have to catch the plane. You may have to use English to get around the airport in a country where Spanish is not the official language.

In order to be able to communicate in a simple but effective way for our interests we show you some examples of dialogues that can be useful to you.

First of all we will arrive at the airport to the corresponding terminal, and we will go to Departures. Nowadays you can check in online, and if you only have carry-on luggage/hand luggage you don't need to go through the check-in desks.

In case you have to check a suitcase we show you an example dialogue:

Clerk: Good morning/afternoon/evening. Where are you flying to?   
You: I’m flying to “London”.     
Clerk: Can I see your ticket and passport, please?        
You: I am not carrying my passport, only my identity card.  
Clerk: That’s fine. Are you checking any bags?     
You: Yes, one.
Clerk: Could you place it on the scale, please?
You: Sure.
Clerk: Would you like an aisle or a window seat?
You: A window seat, please.
Clerk: Ok. Here is your boarding pass. Your flight leaves from gate 2B.
You: Thank you.

The next step is to go through Security, where our hand luggage goes through the X-ray machine. Let's look at an example:

Agent: Please, put your bags flat on the conveyor belt.
You: Ok.
Agent: Any liquids or sharp objects in your bag?
You: No. Do I have to put my mobile in the bin?
Agent: Yes, and you have to take off your belt and shoes.
(The detector beeps: Beep,beep,beep)
Agent: Please, step back. Have you got anything in your pockets?
You: My keys.
Agent: Ok. Come on through the detector again, please.
You: Ok.
Agent: You are all set. Have a nice flight.
You: Thank you.

Once we have made this step, we will find our gate and wait in the departure lounge. We will be able to control our flight by looking at the information boards to see if it is delayed or cancelled.

Fortunately, the information we need to know at an airport is displayed graphically, so even if it's not in our language, we can move around without too much difficulty. Even so, it is always good to know a few sentences in English, to understand what they tell us and to be able to reply.

In a future article we will give you some useful dialogues for the arrival at the destination airport.