Airport Code Lookup — IATA & ICAO

Data: IATA and ICAO airport code registries (via OurAirports, public domain). How this is verified →

Find an Airport85,555 airports

Type

“Nearest to me” uses your browser location once to rank airports by distance. Nothing is stored or logged.

Enter an airport name, city, IATA or ICAO code above — or use “Nearest to me”.

Airport code lookup & nearest-airport finder

The Airport Code Lookup resolves any airport by its IATA code (the 3-letter code on tickets and air waybills, e.g. LHR), its ICAOcode (the 4-character code used in air traffic control and flight plans, e.g. EGLL), or a free-text name or city search. It returns the full record: both codes, the airport name and type, municipality, region, country, latitude/longitude and elevation. Ambiguous searches return ranked candidates, with exact code matches and larger airports first.

The companion nearest-airport finder takes a latitude and longitude and returns the closest airports, ranked by great-circle distance with the distance in kilometres on each result. Give it a coordinate you already hold — a port, a warehouse, a city centre — or use the browser “Nearest to me” button, which asks your permission once and sends the coordinate straight to the ranking. Coordinates are input only: nothing is stored or logged.

What the dataset covers

85,555 airports worldwide of every type — large, medium and small airports, heliports, seaplane bases and closed airfields. Filter by type to narrow results, for example to large airports only when you want the nearest international cargo gateway rather than a nearby airstrip. Each entry carries the airport reference point coordinates (not runway thresholds), intended for search and distance ranking rather than navigation.

IATA vs ICAO — which code do I need?

IATA 3-letter codes are the commercial standard: they appear on passenger tickets, baggage tags, air waybills (AWBs) and booking systems. ICAO 4-letter codes are the operational standard used by air traffic control, flight planning and aeronautical charts, and they encode region (e.g. EGfor the UK, K for the contiguous US). A handful of very new airports carry a provisional identifier until their ICAO code is registered. For freight documentation you will usually quote the IATA code; for operational and ATC contexts you will quote the ICAO code.

Data source & accuracy

Data is from OurAirports, dedicated to the public domain. Every large airport has been cross-checked against the independent OpenFlights dataset (95.2% agree within 5 km and IATA), and a representative sample — including every outlier — was independently re-verified against Wikidata, all within 0.8 km. It is best-effort reference data, not authoritative for navigation or regulatory filing; verify current codes with the airport authority, IATA or ICAO.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between IATA and ICAO airport codes?

An IATA code is the 3-letter code you see on tickets, baggage tags and air waybills (e.g. LHR for London Heathrow). An ICAO code is the 4-character code used in air traffic control, flight plans and aviation operations (e.g. EGLL for the same airport). This tool accepts either — and also free-text name or city search.

How does the "nearest airport" finder work?

You provide a latitude and longitude — either by typing nothing and using the browser "Nearest to me" button (which asks your permission once), or by calling the /api/nearest-airport endpoint with coordinates you already have. The tool ranks airports by great-circle (haversine) distance and returns them closest-first with a distance in kilometres. Coordinates are used only to compute the ranking; nothing is stored or logged.

Where does the airport data come from?

The dataset is OurAirports (ourairports.com), which is dedicated to the public domain. Every large airport has been cross-checked against OpenFlights and an independent Wikidata sample for codes and coordinates. It is reference data only — verify current codes with IATA or ICAO before operational use.

Does it include cargo airports, heliports and small airfields?

Yes. The dataset covers 85,555 airports of every type — large, medium and small airports, heliports, seaplane bases and closed airfields. Use the type filter (or the type parameter on the API) to narrow results, for example to large airports only when finding the nearest cargo gateway.

REST API

GET/api/airports

View API documentation →

REST API

GET/api/nearest-airport

View API documentation →

Airport data from OurAirports (public domain), cross-checked vs OpenFlights and Wikidata. Reference only — coordinates are the airport reference point, not for navigation. Verify current IATA/ICAO codes with the airport authority.

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