Is there an international air traffic control radio language?
International air traffic control is in English. However, pilots in non-English-speaking countries flying within the borders of those countries and communicating only with air traffic controllers in those countries have the option of speaking their own, non-English language. Pilots on international flights communicating with ATC in a given country that is not an English-speaking country have the option of communicating with ATC in the national language. Some pilots do this, some prefer to do everything in English. In general, in countries with a poor record for English-language speaking ability, you’ll hear more pilots and controllers speaking the local language, whereas in other countries where good levels of English as a second language prevail, you’ll often hear English. Since pilots do not talk to each other on ATC frequencies, it’s possible to have some traffic speaking English and some traffic speaking another language, if the controllers are multilingual. Again, the extent to wh
