ICAO Phraseology Reference Guide
A Quick Reference Guide for
Commercial Air Transport Pilots
To and For
Use of the word ‘to’ directly before a climb/descent instruction or change of
heading can be confused as ‘two’. Such confusion is avoided by using the
mandatory words ‘flight level’ or ‘heading’ immediately before the numbers.
Big Jet 345, climb to FL180.
Big Jet 345, turn left to heading 310 degrees.
There are also occasions where inappropriate use of the word ‘for’ can introduce
confusion if it is interpreted as the number ‘four’.