ATC language

[tobbe490]

Hallo

 

 

Landing i Paris (LFPO) today and listened to IRL communication. ATC spoke a mixture of french and english. Do you have to speak french when landing i Orly?

[jettojig]

Nope. Standard ATC language is always English, though if everyone on frequency speaks french then I think there are exceptions. 

 

Orly shouldn't be like that though, and I'm very surprised there is French being overwhelmingly used on LiveATC's feed. I actually wonder if something else is going on, like a signal mix-up. Normally you want a standardised language as ATC is vitally important for situational awareness, and English has always been so.

[eaglewing7]

Time and again people think that English is the only language allowed for ATC/radio communication, and that is simply not true.

 

ICAO has mandated that there are six standard languages that can be used.  They are; English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese.

[jettojig]

Time and again people think that English is the only language allowed for ATC/radio communication, and that is simply not true.

 

ICAO has mandated that there are six standard languages that can be used.  They are; English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese.

 

Not quite, though my previous response wasn't correct either. Having done some further research, I realise that the "standard" ATC language for a country is that country's official language - so French, Spanish, French etc. are standard if the country uses them as its first language.

 

However, any communications in English must be responded to in English, so you can reasonably assume that any ATCO at an international airport will be able to respond in, and understand, English.

 

Going back to LFPO, this means that French is totally legitimate language when flying into there, however you don't need to know any French to fly there; if you start speaking English on frequency, someone will be able to reply in English too.

 

As far as I can tell, this wouldn't be expected of languages other than the host nation's and English though - E.G. you couldn't fly into Orly and speak Chinese on the radio and expect someone to understand you.

Edited November 22, 2015 by jiggyb2

[eaglewing7]

Your last interpretation is correct.

 

Consider the province of Quebec.  Being a Francophone province, they tend to speak French, and ATC will be provided in French - but they are required to speak English as required (then again they don't like it but that is another story).