Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London
Image : Citizen59, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An airport is a place where airplanes take off and land. Passengers get on and off planes, cargo and other goods are loaded and unloaded at airports. Air travel has become the main type of transportation over long distances and modern airplanes belong to the safest means of travel. Every day millions of people fly on thousands of planes all over the world.

Currently , there are over 40,000 airports around the world. The largest of them are like small cities. They have hotels, restaurants, banks, post offices and other shops, as well as their own police force or fire department . Thousands of people work at an airport every day.

Types of Airports

• Commercial service airports serve the big national and international airlines. Planes from all over the world take off and land there.
• General aviation airports are smaller airports that handle private, business and charter planes as well as planes that carry people to and from bigger airports.
• Military airfields are operated by the army and sometimes share space with other airports.

Heathrow Airport, London, U.K.
Image :  Kenneth Iwelumo (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons

American Military Airport on the Pacific island of Guam
Image: United States Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Terminal

The terminal is the largest building at an airport. All passengers must pass through it when they start or end their trip. At the ticket counter you receive your boarding card and your baggage is checked and weighed . Then the airline assistant will put a label with a three-letter code around your baggage .It shows the destination airport and makes sure the suitcases get on the correct airplane.

While you wait to board your plane you may spend your time at some of the many shops that are at the airport: newsstands , restaurants, gift shops or even banks. Many international airports have duty-free shops. If you are visiting a foreign country, you can buy things there without having to pay duty or import tax. Some airports have an observation lounge where you can look through large windows and watch planes take off and land.

Before you go to your gate you must pass a security area where your passport is checked and your bags are x-rayed and checked for weapons and other things that you are not allowed to take on board. The gate is the place where you leave the airport building to get on your plane. Gates may often be very far away from the centre of the terminal. Moving sidewalks take you to those that are far away. At larger airports you are taken there by bus or train. Big airports may have up to a hundred or more gates. Arriving passengers cannot leave the terminal at once. They first go to baggage claim , a place where you get your baggage after it is unloaded from the plane.

Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport
Image: TimBray at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Duty-free shop at Beijing international airport
Image: Zhanyanguange, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Self check-in at Dublin Airport
Image: Marek Slusarczyk, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The Runway

Airplanes take off and land on runways. Big passenger planes need long runways that are up to 4 or 5 km in length . They may look like ordinary paved roads but are made of a special material so that they won’t crack when heavy planes land. Snow ploughs and machines that spread salt keep them snow- and ice-free in winter. Green, red and white lights mark runways so that pilots can see them at night and when visibility is bad. Airplanes use taxiways to move to the main runway or to hangars . Small trucks bring big planes out of the parking zone.

Runway at Ardabil Airport in northwestern Iran
Image: Shahram Sharifi (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons

Gibraltar Airport’s runway crossed by a road between Gibraltar and Spain
Image: Dicklyon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Airport Facilities

Control Tower

The control tower is the centre of airport traffic control. Air controllers use radar, radio, signal lights and other electronic equipment to guide planes when they take off and land. They give pilots permission to take off or tell them which runway to use. At busier airports controllers handle up to 200 aircraft per hour.

Air traffic control tower at Birmingham Airport, U.K.
Image: Myself (Adrian Pingstone)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hangars

Hangars are buildings in which airplanes are repaired or serviced . Most airlines have their own hangars, in which they can park many jets at the same time. Most hangars are far away from terminals and runways so that they do not interfere with airport traffic .

Lufthansa Airbus in a hangar
Image :  C Mercieca at English WikipediaW,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Other Facilities

Airports have many other buildings. Food kitchens or catering companies prepare food that is brought onto planes. Large airlines often have their offices in their own buildings. All airports have big parking lots or houses and most airports are connected with the inner cities through trains or subways.

Originally , airports were built far away from city centers. They have not moved, but cities have grown a lot and today many suburbs lie near them. A lot is being done to make life more bearable for people who live in nosier airport areas. At some airports, traffic is forbidden during night hours. Airports today are getting bigger and bigger. As more and more people choose air travel as a convenient way of travelling, new terminals and other facilities must be built in order to cope with a growing number of passengers.

Airport Management

Commercial airports are mostly publicly owned but they must find their ways of making money. They rent space to airlines for check-in counters or baggage areas and charge them fees for landing.

Companies and firms must pay to open up shops and restaurants. In addition , the airports get lots of money from parking fees . The airport manager and his staff are in charge of running the entire airport. Various departments are responsible for finances, administration , safety , or engineering .

Parking lot at an airport
Image : Pixabay , CC0Public Domain

Problems of Airports

Originally , airports were built far away from city centers. They have not moved, but cities have grown a lot and today many suburbs lie near them. A lot is being done to make life more bearable for people who live in nosier airport areas. At some airports, traffic is forbidden during night hours. Airports today are getting bigger and bigger. As more and more people choose air travel as a convenient way of travelling, new terminals and other facilities must be built in order to cope with a growing number of passengers.

Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson was the world’s busiest airport in 2018 (before the pandemic)

Image :Craig Butz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The World’s Largest Airports

List of the airports with the highest  number of passengers per year (2019 – before the pandemic)

Videos

Exercises

Word search

Writing Task

Write about a recent trip to the airport and what you have seen there. (If you haven’t  been to an airport, you can use the information in this unito make up a report).

Write about 

• the shops and other facilities in the terminal
• a visit to the observation deck where you see planes take off and land
• the security measures at airports

Your report should be about 300 words long !

Image:Ralf Roletschek, GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons

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