How Airports Work

Key Terms
check-in prijava putnika
runway uzletno sletna staza
passenger drop-off and pick-up areas područja dovoženje i odvoženje putnika
apron stajanka
control tower kontrolni toranj
gate izlaz
flight delay kašnjenje leta
air traffic control system sustav zračne kontrole

Text Summary

Airports are amazing "mini-cities," providing services to all sorts of people and companies. To
meet passengers' needs, airports
must be accessible, have areas for
ticketing, check-in and baggage
handling, keep the passengers safe,
offer food and other services and
maintain areas for the customs
service. An airport can't exist in
isolation. It depends on a massive
surface-transportation system so
that people can get to and from the
airport, park and get from place to
place within the airport structure
itself. Airports have facilities such as
runways, ground concourses,
terminals, fuel depots, hangars and
a control tower. Shuttle service
helps passengers get to the terminal gates from the concourse. We'll define concourses as the
long halls and large, open ar eas where you'll find shops, restaurants and lounges, and terminals
as long halls lined by the gates where you board and disembark airplanes. The gates are where
the airplanes park for passenger boarding and disembarking. Passengers wait in the immediate
area of each gate to board the plane. Runways have to be specially constructed, engineers
have to consider the number of wheels an airplane has, how far apart those wheels are

1
and the size of the tires. Sometimes, there are unexpected situations which may c ause flight
delays, such as bad weather or operating above capacity.
Text and Vocabulary Exercises
1) Explain the following terms from the text in English

“check-in”

“surface-transportation system”

“concourse”

“terminal”

“gate”

“shuttle service”

2
2) Watch the video “Customer Service at Jacksonville International Airport (JAX )” at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8e_NCR4V8w about customer services at JAX airport
and fill in the table below.

Briefly outline the passenger journey through the airport describing the facilities and services provided to
passengers at JAX. Analyze the roles and responsibilities of various employees. Identify potential problems and
say how you would respond to them.

Service Roles and responsibilities Problems

3
3) Watch the video “This is Zagreb Airport” at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZeYyL8hzk0&t=40s
and write down 10 facts about it.

1) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
2) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
3) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
4) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
5) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
6) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
7) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
8) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
9) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
10) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
11) _____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
12) ____________________________________________________________________________________