The terminal is the largest building at an airport. All passengers must pass through it when they start or end their trip. At the ticket counter, you receive your boarding card and your baggage is checked and weighed . Then the airline assistant will put a label with a three-letter code around your baggage . It shows the destination airport and makes sure the suitcases get on the correct airplane.

While you wait to board your plane you may spend your time at some of the many shops that are at the airport: newsstands , restaurants, gift shops or even banks. Many international airports have duty-free shops. If you are visiting a foreign country, you can buy things there without having to pay duty or import tax. Some airports have an observation lounge where you can look through large windows and watch planes take off and land. 

Before you go to your gate, you must pass a security area where your passport is checked and your bags are x-rayed and checked for weapons and other things that you are not allowed to take on board. The gate is the place where you leave the airport building to get on your plane. Gates may often be very far away from the centre of the terminal. Moving sidewalks take you to those that are far away. At larger airports, you are taken there by bus or train. Big airports may have up to a hundred or more gates. Arriving passengers cannot leave the terminal at once. They first go to baggage claim , a place where you get your baggage after it is unloaded from the plane.



Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport
Image: TimBray at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Duty-free shop at Beijing International Airport
Image: Zhanyanguange, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Self check-in at Dublin Airport
Image: Marek Slusarczyk, CC BY 2.5,
via Wikimedia Commons



Words

  • arrive = to get to the place you are going to
  • assistant = person who works for an airline
  • baggage = the bags and suitcases you take with you when travelling
  • baggage claim = area where you get your bags and suitcases after landing
  • board = get on
  • boarding card = a ticket that you get which you must show when you get on a plane
  • destination = the place that someone or something is going to
  • duty= a tax you pay on something you buy
  • foreign = different from your own
  • gift shop = place where you buy presents and souvenirs
  • label = piece of paper that you put around an object - it has information on it
  • lounge = waiting room at an airport
  • newsstand = place where you get newspapers, magazines and books
  • receive = get
  • security area = place where passport and bags are examined
  • sidewalk = a hard surface for people to walk on
  • unload = to take something off a plane or ship
  • weapon = something that you use to fight with or attack somone, like a knife, gun or bomb
  • weigh = to check how heavy something is
  • x-ray = to photograph the inside of something