Air Travel ESL Activities, Games & Worksheets
A Horrible Flight
ESL Air Travel Worksheet - Vocabulary, Reading, and Writing Exercises: Matching, Writing and Presenting a Story - Speaking Activity: Asking and Answering Questions
In this comprehensive air travel vocabulary worksheet, students learn and practice words related to air travel. First, students discuss three air travel questions in...
Can I check your boarding pass?
ESL Air Travel Information Activity - Speaking: Forming, Asking and Answering Questions, Form Completion - Pair Work
In this free air travel speaking activity, students ask and answer questions about flight information in order to complete a boarding pass. First, students write their full name on their boarding pass...
Air Travel Flowchart
ESL Air Travel Vocabulary Activity - Reading: Ordering - Pair Work
In this creative air travel activity, students practice air travel vocabulary and expressions by making a flowchart detailing how to travel by air. In pairs, students construct a flowchart representing a complete journey by airplane, from booking a flight to...
Come Fly With Me!
ESL Air Travel Board Game - Speaking: Role-Play, Asking and Answering Questions, Communicative Practice - Group and Pair Work
In this communicative air travel information board game, students role-play asking for air travel information and practice booking airline tickets with a ticket agent...
Race through the Sky
ESL Air Travel Activity - Vocabulary Exercises: Unscrambling, Matching - Speaking Activity: Sentence Completion, Gap-fill - Pair Work
In this engaging air travel activity, students practice air travel vocabulary and use the words in a sentence completion race. First, in two groups, students...
Airport Check-in
ESL Airport Check-in Activity - Reading and Vocabulary Exercises: Ordering, Matching - Writing and Speaking Activity: Writing a Dialogue, Role-Play - Pair Work
In this enjoyable air travel activity, students practice vocabulary and language used to check in at an airport. In pairs, students begin by arranging sentence strips...
Air Travel Collocations
ESL Air Travel Collocations Activity - Vocabulary Exercise: Matching, Forming Collocations - Speaking Game: Forming Collocations and Sentences - Pair Work
In this productive air travel activity, students form air travel collocations from a set of words and play a game to practice the collocations. First, students...
Air Travel Crossword
ESL Air Travel Activity - Vocabulary, Writing and Speaking: Crossword, Writing Clues, Describing, Guessing - Group and Pair Work
In this useful air travel vocabulary activity, students complete a crossword by describing and guessing words related to air travel. In two groups, students invent and write down clues for the air travel words...
In-flight Safety Procedures
ESL Air Travel Lesson - Vocabulary Exercise: Brainstorming - Listening: Listening for Details - Writing and Speaking: Writing and Presenting Instructions - Group Work
In this free air travel lesson, students practice air travel vocabulary and present in-flight safety procedures for an airline. Students begin by brainstorming ideas...
Using Air Travel Language
Air travel functional language covers the phrases travelers and airline staff use at every stage of a journey, from checking in and going through security to boarding, making in-flight requests, and dealing with problems such as delays or lost luggage. Students who rely on only a few basic phrases often struggle to communicate under pressure in a real airport situation, which matters most when they are traveling alone in an English-speaking country.
This page covers air travel functional language across three CEFR levels from A2 to B2, with nine activities and two free downloads.
The table below provides a quick reference guide to key air travel vocabulary and phrases students encounter at each stage of a journey.
| Stage | Key Vocabulary | Common Phrases |
|---|---|---|
| Check-in | boarding pass, luggage, check-in desk, carry-on | 'I'd like a window seat, please.' / 'I only have carry-on luggage.' |
| Security | security check, X-ray, metal detector, liquids | 'Please remove your shoes and belt.' / 'Do you have any liquids?' |
| Gate / Boarding | gate, departure lounge, boarding call, delay | 'Is flight BA204 still on schedule?' / 'Has the boarding time changed?' |
| In-flight | cabin crew, aisle, overhead locker, seatbelt, turbulence | 'Could I have a blanket, please?' / 'Is there an empty seat nearby?' |
| Arrival | immigration, baggage claim, customs, lost luggage | 'My luggage hasn't arrived.' / 'Where is the baggage claim?' |
When to Use Air Travel Language
Asking for and Giving Flight Information: Students need to form and respond to questions about flight details accurately, since a misunderstood question or vague answer at check-in can cause real problems. Practicing this before travel builds the confidence to ask precisely and follow the answer, as in 'Which gate is flight BA204 departing from, and has the boarding time changed?'
Making Requests Politely and Clearly: On a plane or at an airport counter, students need to make requests that are both polite and specific enough to get the right response from staff. Vague requests often lead to misunderstandings, so students benefit from practicing the difference between a general ask and a precise one, as in 'Could I have a blanket and move to the empty aisle seat near the back?'
Describing and Reporting Problems: Students need language to explain what has gone wrong clearly and calmly, whether a bag has not arrived, a flight has been missed, or a seat is incorrect, because unclear descriptions slow down the resolution, as in 'My connecting flight was delayed and my luggage didn't arrive on the same flight I did.'
3-Step Framework for Teaching Air Travel Language
1. Build Core Vocabulary First: Start by giving students a focused bank of air travel words they need to actually use, and get them working with those words in context right away. A story-completion task where students use words from a box in their correct forms is a low-pressure entry point, and following it up by having students write their own true or false story about a horrible flight and read it aloud to the class, who decide if each one is true or not, turns vocabulary practice into genuine communication.
2. Get Students Talking Through Real Airport Scenarios: Once students have the vocabulary, move them into role-play to build fluency. A board game format where one student plays the customer and the other plays the ticket agent works particularly well here, especially when the game board provides real flight data about return flights from London to Perth, covering stopovers, costs, and baggage allowances, that students must actually query and respond to rather than skip past.
3. Push for Collocation Precision: Close the lesson by stretching students beyond single words into the collocations that mark fluent air travel language. A competitive pair game where students must not only form a correct collocation from a prompt word to score one point, but also produce a meaningful sentence using that collocation for an extra point, drives both accuracy and productive use in a single focused activity.
Common Mistakes with Air Travel Language
Confusing 'lose' with 'miss' a flight: Students often translate directly from their first language and say 'lose' instead of 'miss,' producing a phrase that sounds unnatural to any native speaker. Wrong: 'I lost my flight because the traffic was terrible.' Correct: 'I missed my flight because the traffic was terrible.'
Saying 'do the check-in' instead of 'check in': Students often treat 'check-in' as a noun and add 'do' in front of it, creating an awkward collocation that native speakers would not use. Wrong: 'I need to do the check-in before going through security.' Correct: 'I need to check in before going through security.'
Common Questions About Teaching Air Travel Language
What is a fun board game for teaching air travel English?
The board game Come Fly With Me! is fun because the competitive race format gives role-play real stakes. Students take turns playing a customer and a ticket agent, using actual flight data about return flights from London to Perth to ask questions and book flights. The pair that reaches the finish first wins.
What is a useful worksheet for teaching air travel vocabulary?
What makes the worksheet A Horrible Flight useful is how it builds vocabulary in context before asking students to produce it. Students match sentence halves and definitions, then use the words to complete a story about a bad flight, and finish by writing and reading their own true or false story aloud. Vocabulary practice ends with real communication.
What is a good speaking activity for air travel?
The free activity Can I check your boarding pass? gets students talking right away. Each student fills in their own boarding pass details, then asks a partner questions to complete a blank pass with the partner's flight information. Because students exchange real personal details, the conversation feels purposeful rather than practiced.
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