Airport Facilities

A modern airport has three main types of facilities. One is for passengers, one for airplanes on the ground, and one for planes that are taking off or landing.

The busiest and perhaps the most interesting airport building is the terminal building. People make flight reservations and buy tickets at ticket counters. Flight information boards, which can be television screens or electronic signs, display information about arriving and departing flights.

After the passenger service agents take passenger’s baggage, it moves on a conveyor belt to the baggage make up room. There, the luggage for each flight is sorted and placed in containers or on carts to be loaded on the proper airplane.

Modern airport terminals resemble shopping malls. They have waiting lounges, restaurants, snack bars, gift shops, newsstands, game rooms, bookstores, boutiques, banks and even hotels.

Besides, amenities include Left Baggage Counter, Lost and Found, the Nursery, Public Health and toilet facilities.

Among the facilities for airplanes on the ground are loading bridges connected to the terminal building, maintenance shops, in-flight food kitchens and a fueling system. Workers clean the cabin, put food and pump drinking water aboard. There is a special airline’s operation area in the terminal building where the crew examines weather reports and determines the fastest and safest route for each flight.

Facilities that serve airplanes during takeoff and landing include runways, taxiways, parking ramps, and air traffic control tower. Traffic controllers in the tower regulate air traffic at and near the airport. Radar and approach lights assist planes in taking off and landing.

a) Choose seven words to remember. Make a glossary. Compare with a partner.

b) What do you remember about 1)

2)

Vocabulary and Grammar

Ex.14 Complete the sentences with the correct form of these phrasal verbs.

pass through give back check in for fill in step through

take off move on hand over look through go on

1) They arrived at the airport late and saw their plane ____________.

2) When you ____________ your flight you ____________ your baggage except carry on luggage.

3) When I ____________ security check I had to ____________ the metal detector.

4) I ____________ the declaration form and presented it to the customs officer.

5) He ____________ working in shifts at the passenger control until he ____________ to the investigation department.

6) The customs official asked me a few questions about the contents of my baggage, stamped the declaration form and ______ it ______ to me.

Ex. 15 Work with the dictionary to find out the meanings of the words

duty – 1) _______________

2) _______________

It’s our duty to inform the passengers about the changes in the law.

When you bring alcohol or cigarettes above the fixed quotas into a country, you have to pay the duty.

free – 1) _______________

2) _______________

He was found not guilty and walked free from the court.

If something is free from tax, you don’t have to pay tax on it.

stamp – 1) _______________

2) _______________

The passenger was taking out a big collection of stamps.

The official put his personal stamp on the documents when he accepted it for clearance.

number –1) _______________

2) _______________

3) _______________

Five is my lucky number.

What’s your mobile number?

Visitor numbers to some countries increase in summer.

drug – 1) _______________

2) _______________

The big drug companies make huge profits.

Parents should talk openly to their children about the dangers of drug abuse.

The team was banned from the Olympics after failing a drug test.

Ex. 16 grammar

Ex. 17 Unscramble these words.

IOSGGBNNLE - _______________

TTEEIRDSCR - _______________

DOIPEHTRBI - _______________

Use all three words to make a sentence of your own.

Speaking

Ex.18 Discuss the questions.

Why is passegers’ baggage searched?

Why do customs officers ask passengers questions before inspecting the baggage?

What can help customs officers perform their work more efficiently?

Ex. 19 Get ready to speak on the topic.