Chinese Air Travel Vocabulary (Part 1)

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Now that international travel has fully resumed and we can all fly wherever we want, let’s brush up on the essentials — Chinese vocabulary useful for air travel.

Let’s start with the basics – airports, flights and planes:

机场 jīchǎng - Airport

There can be more than one airport in a city. To confirm which airport someone is flying from, you can ask:

你去哪个机场？Nǐ qù nǎ gè jīchǎng? - Which airport are you going to?

航班 hángbān - Flight

To ask someone about their flight, you can say:

你坐几点的航班？Nǐ zuò jǐ diǎn de hángbān? - What time is your flight?

飞机 fēijī - Plane

In contrast to a “flight” which is a process of flying in the air, a “plane” is a physical vehicle. In Chinese, 飞机 (fēijī) and 航班 (hángbān) can very often be used interchangeably. But in phrases such as “to go by plane”, use 飞机 (fēijī):

你是坐飞机还是火车？Nǐ shì zuò fēijī háishi huǒchē? - Are you going by plane or by train?

行李 xínglǐ - Luggage

Depending on the type of luggage, you can check it or carry it with you on board:

托运行李 tuōyùn xínglǐ - check-in luggage

携带行李 xiédài xínglǐ - carry-on luggage

靠窗 kàochuāng - near the window, window seat

If you prefer to look out the window when flying, you can say:

我想要靠窗的位子。Wǒ xiǎngyào kàochuāng de wèizi. - I’d like a window seat.

过道 guòdào – aisle, aisle seat

To get an aisle seat, ask for an “aisle-near-seat”:

我想要过道旁边的位子。Wǒ xiǎngyào guòdào pángbiān de wèizi. - I’d like an isle seat.

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