Aviation English as a lingua franca

As the title of this book is Aviation English: A lingua franca for pilots and air traffic controllers, we will begin by explaining what we mean by ‘Aviation English’ and by ‘lingua franca’ in the aviation context. The focus of our discussions throughout this book is on communications that take place between air traffic controllers and pilots. Such communications are conducted primarily in a very restricted variety of English, namely Aviation English (AE) which has been designed for this specific purpose. We need to emphasize, however, that English is not the only language of communication between air traffic controllers and pilots, and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) policy regarding languages to be used in aviation radiotelephony is discussed at length in Chapter 3. Although our primary focus here is on Aviation English as the lingua franca (a working language) in communications between air controllers and pilots, this is not the only communication loop in the aviation context: important communications also take place between and among crew members in and beyond the cockpit: at air traffic control centres, controllers are often required to communicate with one another and with controllers at other centres; on the ground, aircraft maintenance staff must communicate among themselves and sometimes with the flight crew in the cockpit. A number of regulations and policies, either mandated (via the national Aeronautical Information Publications, or AIP) or internal to the various organisations (such as airlines, flight training schools or maintenance companies) define and constrain the language all these aviation personnel must use and how they must communicate. This makes Aviation English different from other varieties of English for specific purposes, in that it is mandated by law and heavily regulated.