Going to tie this one in with "The International Language of Aviation" elsewhere.
Flew as a human-sardine on a "new" Dutch charter carrier. All the briefings were exclusively in Dutch, while the instructions to the all-dutch cabin crew were in English ("doors cross-checked etc").
Checked with a colleague who flew on an old Dutch carrier and found he had the same experience.
It's very suprising given the huge number of nationalities living in the Netherlands - and given the almost universal Dutch ability to speak English.
Now, KLM + all scheduled carriers of many nationalies usually manage to provide briefings in upto 3 languages: Home + Local + English
Is this not a legal requirement?
- SSC