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.

bash
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.

bash
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:

bash
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:

bash
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:

bash
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

bash
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

bash
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

bash
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.