Language
 

After more than twenty years flying to Spain, I am still annoyed by the fact that the local pilots don't speak English with ATC. What is it with that? I regard it as lack of professionalism when dealing with airline pilots. The same goes for French pilots.

I welcome sensible arguments for not using English as "work" language - if there are any?

"I welcome sensible arguments for not using English as "work" language - if there are any?"

More than sensible arguments for that (there are none in my view) I'd like to know the point itself you are trying to rise here. This has been an issue for some time already, and it is clear that educating a whole generation of Spanish citizen that were not offered a proper foreign language training in their youth is going to take more than a "regulatory change" so, either you accept it and move along or you just don't fly to Spain and France, but looking for arguments at this point of the game has no purpose other than eliciting a reaction or, as some pommies like to say, "stirring the pot".

In a fairly recent setting in a british company in Spain with foreigners and locals arguing the same subject,
a british friend of mine gave food for thought:
imagine the germans had won the war and german had become the world number one aviation language,
would you imagine the british not speak english in their own airspace?

Neither brit, nor spaniard or german, I felt he had a point.

Not meant to stir the pot,

jr

I'm Spanish myself and I do feel it'd be safer and easier for everyone to stick to English at least whenever there are other international traffic in the frequency.
Even many of us, after flying abroad, find it hard now to use Spanish on the radio... pretty weird.
I guess eventually more crews will use English at least at busy international airports.
It may take a major incident or two to expedite the change.

I´m also a Spanish native speaker and I agree with sticking to English whenever there is non-spanish speaking traffic around. It gives more situational awareness. I spent time abroad and since I started in aviation I did everything in English. Because of that, I have the same issues when using Spanish on the radio. I find it difficult.

Not making a big generalisation, still there are some Captains based on pride insisting on using Spanish because "in Spain, we speak Español". On the first stages of Line training flying I was forced to use Spanish on the radio and being shout at because either I was mumbling, getting stuck, saying too much, or switching to English.

There was even a law about to be passed for using English on major aiports, but the Spanish Pilot Union strongly went against that.