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Pre-Listening

What are three things you can do to make air travel more comfortable and convenient?

Listen and Read

Listen, answer the questions, and read along with the audio recording.

The airport is your first stop before leaving on your dream vacation or trip. Generally speaking, you should arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare. Don’t arrive 10 minutes before your plane departs. You can park your car in long-term parking if you’re planning to be away for a few days, or you can ask someone to drop you off in the loading zone right in front of the airport terminal.

In some cases, you can check your bags there at curbside, or you might have to go to the check-in counter inside the airport. Many airports now allow you to check in at a computer kiosk, but you will still need to check your bags if you have any.

Once you are checked in, you will have to pass through security where they will check your ID and your carry-on bags. You will also need to walk through a metal detector, which will check for illegal items. After you pass through security, you can walk to the gate where you can wait to board your flight. Just wait until they call your section to board. They usually seat first-class passengers and those who need assistance first. Enjoy your flight.

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Vocabulary and Expressions From the Audio

• arrive (verb): to reach a place or destination
  • They arrived at the airport two hours before their flight.
• departs (verb): to leave a place, especially at a scheduled time
  • The flight departs at 6:45 in the morning, so we need to leave the house early.
• drop someone off (phrasal verb): to take someone to a place and leave them there
  • Her husband dropped her off at the airport entrance before going to park the car.
• airport terminal (noun): the building at an airport where passengers check in, wait, and board their flights
  • They walked through the airport terminal looking for the check-in counter.
• check your bags (expression): to hand your luggage over to the airline at the airport so it can be stored in the cargo hold of the plane, not in the passenger cabin
  • She went to the counter to check her bags before going through security.
• curbside (noun/adjective): the area directly outside an airport entrance, along the curb, where passengers can be dropped off or check their bags
  • He checked his luggage curbside so he didn’t have to carry it inside the terminal.
• check in (phrasal verb): to register your arrival at the airport and confirm your seat on a flight
  • You can check in online the night before to save time at the airport.
• kiosk (noun): a small self-service machine or station where passengers can check in, print boarding passes, or get information
  • She used the self-service kiosk to print her boarding pass and check in for her flight.
• pass through (phrasal verb): to go through a place or process, such as a security checkpoint
  • All passengers must pass through security before reaching the departure gates.
• gate (noun): the area in an airport terminal where passengers wait and board their specific flight
  • The screen showed that her flight was boarding at gate 14B.
• board (verb): to get on a plane, train, or other vehicle
  • Passengers in rows 20 and above were asked to board the plane first.

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Discussion

• What are some of your frustrations when going through an airport? Is there anything you can do personally to minimize these problems? What can airports do to deal with these issues?
• Listen and compare:

Role Play

You have reached the gate, and your plane is about to depart. However, you just realized that you are missing your laptop. Describe where you went and what you did, step by step, from the time you arrived at the airport to reaching the departure gate.

Online Investigation

Airport security is a major concern for people who fly on airlines. However, people are often unaware as to the rules about what you can and cannot carry on board domestic and international flights because these rules are constantly changing. Now, use the internet to identify the specific items that are banned from flights at the airport nearest you. Summarize your findings with a partner and give a reason why each item is banned from flights.

Online Listening Practice (from www.esl-lab.com):

• Airport Announcement: Listening Conversation
• Airplane Travel: Vocabulary Building

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Disclosure: Randall developed this content through collaboration with AI, combining technological support with professional instructional design.

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