Airline English is a blend of standard English and airline slang spoken by crew members, flight attendants, and pilots. It includes nautical terminology and legal jargon, and is used to maintain a professional distance and demeanor. Flight attendants may use a laminated card to deliver repetitive speeches, and may come up with their own variants of social greetings.
Many frequent flyers can recite the mandatory safety briefing before take-off with the flight attendant who delivers it. What they can’t do, however, is replicate the strange lilt and ultra-formal speech patterns known as airline English. Airline English is an unusual blend of standard English and airline slang spoken almost exclusively by crew members, flight attendants, and pilots.
An example of airline English is the nautical terminology associated with air travel. Passengers do not put their suitcases in the overhead lockers, but “stow” their “cargo” in the overhead “holds”. Personnel on board an aircraft are actually “crew members” reporting to a captain. Flight attendants routinely use this nautical terminology in full sentences, which can be a bit confusing for first-time passengers.
Another reason why many flight attendants and pilots speak airline English is due to the volumes and volumes of regulations imposed by the federal government and individual airlines. Some of these highly technical and legal regulations are meant to be passed on to passengers in some shape or form. Individual airlines, and in some cases individual flight crews, are allowed to create a more streamlined version of these passenger briefings, although the language must still match the spirit of the regulations.
This odd blend of legal jargon and casual talk often presents itself to passengers as a mechanically delivered social contract peppered with memorable snippets of euphemistic platitudes such as “In the event of an unplanned water landing, your seat can be used as a flotation device. Some flight attendants have been known to refer to a laminated card when they deliver the same speech over and over, which can result in an odd cadence of speech that places unusual emphasis on certain words.
Some passengers have even noticed that some flight attendants continue to use a very strict and impersonal form of airline English even when responding to inquiries from minor passengers. This can be a deliberate effort to maintain a professional distance and demeanor when dealing with a large group of passengers. Airline regulations often require a specific and legally approved response to even the most insignificant passenger questions or requests. Flight attendants must be careful not to expose the airline to future disputes by providing an unprofessional response.
Airline English can also be the result of repetitive social greetings, especially the obligatory “goodbye” for disembarking passengers. The prospect of saying “goodbye” to hundreds of passengers can cause many flight attendants to come up with their own variants, delivered with an odd cadence or in an incredibly polite tone. While passengers may hear these pre-flight instructions or greetings for the first time, flight crews can deliver these succinctly worded snippets of euphemistic aviation wisdom several times a week.
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