Airport search

Runnable examples for discovering airports by name or location using the Airport Search endpoints: text autocomplete and nearest-by-coordinates.

#	Question	Data used
1	Autocomplete: user types "heathrow" — what airports match?	/airports/search/text
2	Find the three nearest airports to given GPS coordinates	/airports/search/location

Requirements

Auth

x-api-key on every request (direct subscription). Learn more →

Install

The scripts below use requests for API calls and rich for terminal output. Install once:

pip install requests rich

1. Text autocomplete for airport names

Question: Autocomplete: a user types "heathrow" — what airports match?

The /airports/search/text endpoint returns ranked results by relevance. Use the ident from the first result to call /airports/search?icao= for full runway, frequency, and navaid data.

import os

import requests
from rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table

console = Console()

HEADERS = {
    "X-RapidAPI-Key": os.getenv("RAPIDAPI_KEY", "YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY"),
    "X-RapidAPI-Host": "skylink-api.p.rapidapi.com",
}
BASE = "https://skylink-api.p.rapidapi.com"


def search_text(query: str, limit: int = 5) -> dict | None:
    r = requests.get(
        f"{BASE}/airports/search/text",
        headers=HEADERS,
        params={"q": query, "limit": limit},
        timeout=(10, 15),
    )
    if r.status_code == 404:
        return None
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()


def main() -> None:
    query = "heathrow"
    result = search_text(query, limit=5)
    if not result:
        console.print("[yellow]No results found.[/]")
        return

    airports = result.get("airports") or []
    found = result.get("airports_found", len(airports))

    table = Table(title=f'Text Search: "{query}" — {found} result(s)')
    table.add_column("ICAO", style="cyan", no_wrap=True)
    table.add_column("IATA")
    table.add_column("Name")
    table.add_column("City")
    table.add_column("Country")
    table.add_column("Relevance", justify="right")

    for apt in airports:
        table.add_row(
            apt.get("ident", "—"),
            apt.get("iata_code", "—"),
            apt.get("name", "—"),
            apt.get("municipality", "—"),
            apt.get("iso_country", "—"),
            f"{apt.get('relevance_score', 0):.2f}",
        )

    console.print(table)

    if airports:
        top_icao = airports[0].get("ident", "")
        console.print(
            f"\n[dim]Top match: [bold]{top_icao}[/bold] — fetch full details with "
            f"[bold]/v3/airports/search?icao={top_icao}[/bold][/]"
        )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Output: A ranked table of up to 5 airports matching "heathrow" with ICAO, IATA, name, city, country, and relevance score. Prints the ICAO lookup command for the top result.

2. Nearest airports to GPS coordinates

Question: Find the three nearest airports to given GPS coordinates (lat/lon).

The /airports/search/location endpoint returns airports within a radius sorted by distance. Chain any ident to /airports/search?icao= to retrieve full runway and frequency data.

import os

import requests
from rich.console import Console
from rich.table import Table

console = Console()

HEADERS = {
    "X-RapidAPI-Key": os.getenv("RAPIDAPI_KEY", "YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY"),
    "X-RapidAPI-Host": "skylink-api.p.rapidapi.com",
}
BASE = "https://skylink-api.p.rapidapi.com"


def search_location(lat: float, lon: float, radius_km: int = 80) -> dict | None:
    r = requests.get(
        f"{BASE}/airports/search/location",
        headers=HEADERS,
        params={"lat": lat, "lon": lon, "radius": radius_km},
        timeout=(10, 15),
    )
    if r.status_code == 404:
        return None
    r.raise_for_status()
    return r.json()


def main() -> None:
    # Central London
    lat, lon = 51.5074, -0.1278
    result = search_location(lat, lon, radius_km=80)
    if not result:
        console.print("[yellow]No airports found in radius.[/]")
        return

    airports = result.get("airports") or []
    airports.sort(key=lambda a: a.get("distance_km") or 9999)
    nearest_three = airports[:3]

    table = Table(title=f"Nearest Airports to {lat}°N, {abs(lon)}°W (radius 80 km)")
    table.add_column("ICAO", style="cyan", no_wrap=True)
    table.add_column("Name")
    table.add_column("City")
    table.add_column("Country")
    table.add_column("Distance (km)", justify="right")

    for apt in nearest_three:
        dist = apt.get("distance_km")
        table.add_row(
            apt.get("ident", "—"),
            apt.get("name", "—"),
            apt.get("municipality", "—"),
            apt.get("iso_country", "—"),
            f"{dist:.1f}" if dist is not None else "—",
        )

    console.print(table)
    console.print(
        "\n[dim]Chain any ICAO to [bold]/v3/airports/search?icao={ident}[/bold] "
        "for runway lengths and frequencies.[/]"
    )


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Output: The three closest airports to central London sorted by distance, with ICAO, name, city, country, and distance in km.

Install

1. Text autocomplete for airport names

2. Nearest airports to GPS coordinates

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