Domodedovo Airport becomes international in more ways than one
Now if you have been on a Costa cruise ship you will know that the Italian branch of the Carnival Corporation is keen to make on-board announcements in up to five languages: English, German, French, Spanish and of course Italian itself. It can be disturbing. The resident show compere tried once with disastrous results.
Imagine our despair then when Moscow”s Domodedovo International Airport boldly proclaimed that it is to broadcast flight details in 16 languages.
And eventually go up to 20!
Dear reader, do not get alarmed.
And on no account try to bypass Domodedovo for Sheremetyevo, Moscow's alternative gateway. Most of the international carriers have moved out.
The new wonder system, fully automated we are told, does indeed speak in 16 languages including Azerbaijani, Hindi, Ukrainian and Uzbek.
The catch is the system is linked to the flight it is announcing. There is English, Russian, plus the country the aircraft is bound for.
In fact just three languages are offered at the most.
With Korean Air it is English, Russian and Korean.
For the United States just English and Russian.
And Russian destinations - English and Russian.