The futur proche (near future) is the everyday way to talk about something about to happen, formed with the present tense of aller plus an infinitive: je vais partir (I'm going to leave), elle va manger (she's going to eat), nous allons voyager (we're going to travel).
It's used constantly in spoken French, often even for plans well in the future, in much the same way English uses "going to". The futur simple exists as a more formal alternative, but in everyday conversation, aller + infinitive is by far the more common way to talk about the future.