Actuellement B737 NG it goes:

1. Chinese (Mandarin) 1,075,000,000
2. English 514,000,000
3. Hindustani 496,000,000
4. Spanish 425,000,000
5. Russian 275,000,000
6. Arabic 256,000,000
7. Bengali 215,000,000
8. Portuguese 194,000,000
9. Malay-Indonesian 176,000,000
10. French 129,000,000
(source Ethnologue, 13th Edition)

World's Most Widely Spoken Languages

or another source quotes:
1. Chinese* (937,132,000)
2. Spanish (332,000,000)
3. English (322,000,000)
4. Bengali (189,000,000)
5. Hindi/Urdu (182,000,000)
6. Arabic* (174,950,000)
7.Portuguese (170,000,000)
8. Russian (170,000,000)
9. Japanese (125,000,000)
10.German (98,000,000)
11.French* (79,572,000)

Top Languages By Population


or possibly:

Rank, Countries, Population,language (in millions)
1. Chinese, Mandarin Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, S. Africa, Taiwan, Thailand 885
2. Spanish Algeria, Andorra, Argentina, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Chad, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Rep., Ecuador, El Salvador, Eq. Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Madagascar, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Togo, Tunisia, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela. 332
3. English Australia, Belize, Botswana, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Guyana, India, Ireland, Israel, Lesotho, Liberia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, S. Africa, Suriname, Swaziland, Tonga, U.K., U.S., Vanuatu, Zimbabwe, many Caribbean states 322
4. Arabic Egypt, Sudan, ALgeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Lybia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, UAE, Oman, Iraq, Lebanon 235
5. Bengali Bangladesh, India, Singapore 189
6. Hindi India, Nepal, Singapore, S. Africa, Uganda 182
7. Portuguese Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, France, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, São Tomé and Pr'ncipe 170
8. Russian China, Israel, Mongolia, Russia, U.S. 170
9. Japanese Japan, Singapore, Taiwan 125
10. German, Standard Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Czech Rep., Denmark, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Paraguay, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Switzerland 98
11. Chinese, Wu China 77.2
12. Javanese Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore 75.5
13. Korean China, Japan, N. Korea, S. Korea, Singapore, Thailand 75
14. French Algeria, Andorra, Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Laos, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Monaco, Morocco, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Vietnam 72


The 50 Most Widely Spoken Languages in the World

There's obviously some differences, but I can't find anywhere that French ranks above the 10th most widely spoken language.

Right............so how do I say "Cleared visual approach" in Chinese?

"Let there be many fragrant flowers on your return to earth"

This has absolutely nothing to do with the French..... but we calculated that a B777 crew flew through countries with 62 different languages in the course of a year.

We are therefore left with two options.....

1: Each B777 crewmember is trained in 62 languages prior to release to the line.
2: As an airline, we fight that all aviation communication be conducted in a common language...... English..............

Just to remove those xenophobic ideas, the national language of this airline is ARABIC.



Mutt.