Airline & Airport Terminology

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Airline & Airport Terminology 

 

 

Airline and airport jargon questions show up all the time, so clearly people are interested knowing what they are hearing around them in the airport. Here a glossary, focusing on those expressions most easily misunderstood, or not understood at all.

 

In no special order:

1. 1L/1R (2L/2R, 3L/3R, etc): On a flight when you hear flight attendants announce 1L/1R ( other number combinations), they are discussing the aircraft cabin doors. e.g. The boarding door of most aircraft is “1L”, which stands for 1-Left.
2. All Call: “All Call” is flight attendants verifying each of the cabin doors is locked and armed for departures, or that doors are disarmed when arriving at the gate.
3. ATC: Air Traffic Control. Air Traffic Control can be a tower at the airport you are departing from, a tower at the airport you’re headed to, or an air traffic control center in the middle of no-where watching a huge swatch of sky keeping aircraft safely traveling through air.
4. BoB: BoB is ‘Buy-on-Board. BoB is a term introduced to most airlines in the past few years, and it is rarely used directly to passengers directly. BoB can occasionally be heard in the galley in reference to the meals and drinks passengers can purchase in-flight.
5. Captain: The person in the cockpit sitting in the Left Seat with 4-stripes on their shoulder epaulets. The Captain is in charge, in flight they have command of the aircraft and everything on board.
6. Control Tower: The Control Tower is often referred to as simply ‘The Tower.’ The Tower oversees an airport’s aircraft movements. These movements are not only on the ground, but also include inbound aircraft and departing aircraft.
7. Cross Check: This is used by both the captain and first officer and the cabin crew. Cross checking is simply one person on the crew verifying another person on the crew’s actions. When doors are armed/disarmed by one crewmember they are ‘cross checked’ by another crewmember.
8. Equipment: Equipment is a ‘technical’ term for ‘the plane’ (I won’t be defining ‘plane’). When you hear “There has been a change of equipment,” it usually means “your plane isn’t available” or “your original plane is broken.”
9. First Officer: The person in the cockpit sitting in the Right Seat with 3-stripes on their shoulder epaulets. The First Officer, often referred to as the co-pilot (both the captain and first officer are both obviously fully qualified and type rated pilots). The First Officer is the second in command of the aircraft and everything on-board it.
10. Gatehouse: The Gatehouse is the boarding area. I have never seen a gate or house in the Gatehouse, so I have no idea where the term comes from. I usually just refer to the boarding area as ‘The Gate.”
11. Ground Stop: A Ground Stop is a stoppage of all flights at an airport. If you are traveling to an airport that has become so congested with air traffic that it needs to clear out some space before new aircraft can depart for that airport, they can issue a ‘ground stop.’ A ground stop is like your sink filling with water, even when your drain is open. You can watch the water going down the drain while simultaneously filling up. You need to slow the water, or turn it off before you can lower the water level in the sink.
12. Flight Closed: If you are at the gate you see your flight flashing “Closed” you have missed your flight. Once a flight has Closed, the gate door is shut and the gate agent is standing at the end of the Jetway steering it away from the aircraft so it can ‘push back.’
13. Flight Crew: The Captain, First Officer and your flight attendants (Cabin Crew) are your Flight Crew.
14. Flight Deck: The Flight Deck is a fancy word for ‘The Cockpit’
15. Final Boarding: If you hear “Final Boarding” while heading to your gate for a flight you’d better start running. Final Boarding comes right before “Closed,” and is not something you want to hear unless you are handing the gate agent your boarding pass.
16. Holding Pattern: “We’re being placed into a Holding Pattern” This is an announcement that everyone hates. A Holding Pattern is when aircraft are sent into loops circling their destination, or just outside their destination, until a landing slot is available for them to land at the airport.
17. Jetway: The Jetway is also referred to as an Aerobridge, Boarding Bridge or Jet Bridge. The Jetway is the ‘tunnel’ you walk down that connects the terminal to the aircraft.
18. Paperwork: Paperwork, as in “we’re just waiting on some paperwork.” This is when the Captain and First Officer are waiting on paperwork they need to close up the aircraft and ‘push back.’ Paperwork is usually out of the hands of the flight crew, so the flight crew is stuck waiting, just like the passengers, for the ground crew to deliver the ‘Paperwork.’
19. Push: “Push” also known as “Push Back.” An aircraft ‘pushing’ is usually quite literally a ‘tug’ or ‘tractor’ pushing the aircraft back from the terminal. Aircraft can push back by reverse thrusting their engines, but that wastes a lot of fuel, it is extremely loud, kicks up a lot of debris and it is easier to maneuver an aircraft by pushing it backwards with a tug, given that the crew in the cockpit cannot see backwards to steer themselves around other aircraft.
20. Ramp: Originally “The Ramp” was ramp area from the water to where an aircraft took on or off loaded passengers and parked. Since I don’t see many seaplanes landing at major commercial airports these days, we’ll go with the modern definition of ‘ramp’ … the area surrounding the terminals and jetways, excluding the taxiway and runway, where aircraft and airport vehicles operate is the ramp.
21. Wheels Up Time: An aircraft’s “We are should be Wheels Up within a few minutes,” this is time is the time the aircraft is scheduled to be airborne. This term is also used for the actual time the aircraft lifts its wheels off the ground.

Did I leave any common terms out? If so, let me know.

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22. Oh Crap: The aircraft is going to crash