Pronouncing airline names can be complicated for a variety of reasons. Often this confusion comes down to acronyms vs. initialisms, with the former being abbreviations that are pronounced as words, and the latter being abbreviations that are pronounced as letters. In other situations, the confusion can down to the name originating in a foreign language, and deciding how that should be said in English.
With that in mind, I figure it would be fun to cover some of the airline names that people struggle with the most. I wrote a similar post last year, but I want to add a few more airlines, and I’ve also picked up a few tricks based on reader feedback last time.
Let me emphasize that I have no claims of being a language expert. For that matter, there’s often more than one acceptable way to pronounce the name of an airline, and it also depends on whether you’re speaking in English, or in the carrier’s native language. But this is intended to be a general and basic guide based on how carriers choose to market themselves.
With that in mind, let’s cover some of the airlines that tend to cause the most confusion…
ANA is pronounced “A-N-A”
Japanese Star Alliance carrier All Nippon Airways has the abbreviation “ANA,” and that’s generally sounded out letter by letter. So you’d call it “A-N-A, and not “anna.” It’s a different story in Japanese, but I’m trying to keep things simple here…
Etihad Airways is pronounced “e-ti-had”
If you want to pronounce Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways’ name correctly without overcomplicating things, you’re pretty safe if you go with “e-ti-had” (make sure you pronounce it as three syllables rather than two).
That being said, if you truly want to pronounce it correctly and be a little more authentic to the Arabic pronunciation, go with “it-tee-had,” strange as it might sound in English. That’s because in Arabic (based on my understanding), the “e” sounds a little more like an “i,” and the “t” sound is also a little different, because there’s no Arabic letter for the typical “t” sound in English.
EVA Air is pronounced “E-V-A”
Taiwanese Star Alliance carrier EVA Air is supposed to be pronounced as “E-V-A Air.” Personally I think just pronouncing it as “ee-vah” sounds so much nicer, but that’s not the official pronunciation. That being said, lots of people do still refer to the airline as “ee-vah,” so odds are that people will know what you’re talking about if you pronounce it that way. For example, it’s much more common to sound out “EVA” than it is to sound out “ANA.”
ITA Airways is pronounced “ee-tah”
Italian national carrier ITA Airways is sounded out “ee-tah,” rather than reading out the letters as “I-T-A.” This is also in part because in Italian, the letter “I” is pronounced as a long “E,” while the “A” in Italian is pronounced as a short “A,” which explains why it’s pronounced this way.
JAL is pronounced “jah-l”
Japanese oneworld carrier Japan Airlines has the abbreviation “JAL,” and generally that’s sounded out as one syllable. So you’d call it “jah-l,” rather than “J-A-L.” Now, some people still do call it “J-A-L,” but that’s not the way it’s pronounced in official marketing. It’s interesting to see how ANA and JAL approach this differently. Again, this is specific to English — in Japanese, it would be pronounced “ja-ru,” as I understand it.
LOT Polish Airlines is pronounced “lot”
Polish Star Alliance carrier LOT Polish Airlines is supposed to be pronounced as “lot.” As long as you don’t pronounce it “l-o-t,” you’re good.
Lufthansa is pronounced “luhf-tahn-zah”
Since I speak German, I’m confused by how people are confused about how to pronounce Lufthansa. It’s just “luft-hansa,” exactly as it’s spelled, no? Then again, I’m similarly confused by people not understanding how to pronounce my last name, so that might just be my bias.
The key things to understand are that you don’t want to go too strong on the “loo” sound at the front, the middle of the word doesn’t have a traditional English “th” sound, and the word doesn’t end in “stansa,” as I’ve sometimes heard.
Qatar Airways is pronounced “kah-tahr”
Qatar Airways is known for being one of the world’s best airlines, but how do you pronounce its name? I suppose this comes down to whether you want to pronounce the carrier’s name in an Arabic-sounding way, or more of an English-sounding way. I’m by no means an expert on Arabic, but generally the airline officially pronounces the carrier’s name in two syllables, as “kah-tahr.”
Some mild deviations from that are fine as well, like depending on where you want to put the emphasis. While “cutter” isn’t the correct way to pronounce it, it does seem to be a common way for Brits to say it. No matter what, avoid the beginning of the word being along the lines of “kwah” or “kyu.”
SAS is pronounced “sass”
SkyTeam carrier Scandinavian Airlines is commonly abbreviated as SAS. In Northern Europe (at SAS hubs), you’ll generally hear people refer to the airline as “sass,” saying it all as one syllable. Outside of the region it’s common to hear people sound out the letters, “S-A-S,” but that’s not the official way it’s pronounced.
TAP Air Portugal is pronounced “tap”
Portuguese Star Alliance carrier TAP Air Portugal Air is supposed to be pronounced as “tap.” It’s not “t-a-p,” so in that sense, it follows more of the SAS approach than the EVA approach.
Bottom line
It can be hard for the average person to keep track of the names of airlines. While some airline names can be hard to pronounce due to the words originating in foreign languages, in other cases it’s hard to figure out whether a carrier’s abbreviated name is using acronyms or initialisms.
The above are some of the airlines I see people most struggle with, so hopefully that’s a useful rundown of how to go about pronouncing a carrier’s name, based on how they officially present themselves. Of course in many cases there are variants that are widely used, and it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get the pronunciation right.
What’s your take on pronouncing the names of these airlines? Any other airlines I’m missing that tend to cause confusion?
