Wikipedia Airports

Wikipedia Airports

Use Wikipedia as a route discovery and sanity-check source for airport destinations. This is especially useful when:

• an airport page has an Airlines and destinations section
• an airline's own city-pair marketing pages confirm service patterns
• flight search tools disagree about whether a route exists

Wikipedia is not a booking source and not a real-time schedule source. Use it to discover likely routes, then confirm them with airline or fare tools.

Best Use Cases

• "What destinations does SAN serve?"
• "Does Southwest fly SAN -> EUG?"
• "What airports can I use for a late split return?"
• "Which airline serves this small airport nonstop?"

Workflow

1. Resolve the airport page from an IATA code

Use Wikipedia search with the airport code plus the word airport.

curl -s "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=search&srsearch=SAN+airport&format=json" \
  | jq '.query.search[0:5][] | {title}'

Usually the first result is the airport page, e.g. San Diego International Airport.

2. Fetch the page

Use the readable page HTML or the wikitext parse API.

curl -s "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=San_Diego_International_Airport&prop=wikitext&formatversion=2&format=json" \
  | jq -r '.parse.wikitext'

Or fetch the rendered page:

curl -Ls "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Diego_International_Airport"

3. Look for route sections

Search for headings like:

• Airlines and destinations
• Destinations
• Passenger
• Airlines

Example:

curl -s "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=San_Diego_International_Airport&prop=wikitext&formatversion=2&format=json" \
  | jq -r '.parse.wikitext' \
  | rg -n "Airlines and destinations|Destinations|Passenger|Southwest|Eugene|Portland"

4. Treat airline city-pair pages as a second source

If the airport page is incomplete, use airline route pages to validate the pattern.

Examples:

curl -Ls "https://www.southwest.com/en/flights/flights-from-portland-or-to-san-diego" | rg "PDX|SAN|Portland|San Diego"
curl -Ls "https://www.southwest.com/en/flights/flights-from-portland-or-to-orange-county-santa-ana" | rg "PDX|SNA|Portland|Orange County"

This is especially useful for Southwest because:

• it is missing from most GDS sources
• route existence is often easier to verify from marketing pages than from award/cash APIs

5. Then confirm with fare tools

After Wikipedia suggests the route exists:

1. Check cash pricing with SerpAPI, Kiwi, Skiplagged, or Duffel (if supported)
2. Check Southwest separately when needed
3. Prefer airline/fare-tool evidence over Wikipedia if they disagree

Decision Rules

Use Wikipedia to answer:

• whether an airport likely has service to a destination
• which airlines appear to serve a city pair
• whether a small airport is worth searching

Do NOT use Wikipedia to answer:

• exact daily schedules
• whether a flight is operating on a specific date
• current fares
• award availability

Example: SAN and Southwest to EUG

If the SAN airport page or related route references indicate Southwest serves Eugene, treat that as a lead, not final proof.

Then validate with:

1. Southwest route pages or booking pages
2. Google Flights / SerpAPI
3. Southwest-specific search if available

This skill is most valuable when it tells you "search this route, don't assume it doesn't exist."

Useful Patterns

Airport page lookup by IATA code

CODE=SAN
curl -s "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=search&srsearch=${CODE}+airport&format=json" \
  | jq -r '.query.search[0].title'

Pull likely destination section lines

PAGE="San_Diego_International_Airport"
curl -s "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=${PAGE}&prop=wikitext&formatversion=2&format=json" \
  | jq -r '.parse.wikitext' \
  | rg -n "Airlines and destinations|Destinations|Alaska|Southwest|United|Delta|Eugene|Portland|Redmond"

Search for an airline + destination on the page

PAGE="San_Diego_International_Airport"
curl -s "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=parse&page=${PAGE}&prop=wikitext&formatversion=2&format=json" \
  | jq -r '.parse.wikitext' \
  | rg -n "Southwest|Eugene|EUG"

Notes

• Wikipedia pages vary wildly in quality. Some airports have complete route tables; others are stale.
• Small airports are often better maintained than airline route databases for simple "does this exist?" checks.
• When Wikipedia and fare tools disagree, trust the fare/schedule sources for booking decisions.
• Use this skill as a discovery and cross-check tool, not a source of truth.