Property talk:P238

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IATA airport code
three-letter identifier for designating airports, railway stations or cities (for airlines, see P229)

Description	IATA code for identifying airports
Represents	IATA airport code (Q192824)
Has quality	all caps (Q3960579)
Data type	String
Domain	According to this template: aerodrome (Q62447), mainly airport (Q1248784) According to statements in the property: airport (Q1248784), railway station (Q55488), aerodrome (Q62447) or runway (Q184590) When possible, data should only be stored as statements
Allowed values	[A-Z]{3}
Example	Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood (Q635361) → FLL Rimouski Airport (Q3912794) → YXK Paris (Q90) → PAR
Source	IATA airport code (Q192824) (note: this information should be moved to a property statement; use property source website for the property (P1896))
Formatter URL	https://www.iata.org/en/publications/directories/code-search/?airport.search=$1
Tracking: same	no label (Q32085214)
Tracking: differences	no label (Q22013022)
Tracking: usage	Category:Pages using Wikidata property P238 (Q22013029)
Tracking: local yes, WD no	no label (Q22013019)
See also	ICAO airport code (P239), IATA airline designator (P229), Argentinean NCAA Airport code (P6120), Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics (Mexico) code (P5746), Ex-USSR internal airport code (P5851), Transport Canada LID (P5699), Brazilian aerodrome identification code (P11181)
Lists	Items with the most statements of this property Count of items by number of statements (chart) Items with the most statements Items with the fewest statements Count of items by number of sitelinks (chart) Items with the most sitelinks Items with the most sitelinks, but no link to one Wikipedia (sample: Welsh Wikipedia, cywiki) Items with the fewest sitelinks Most linked wikis Items with the most identifier properties Items with no other statements Most recently created items Items with novalue claims Items with unknown value claims Usage history (total) Usage history (main statement) Chart by item creation date Database reports/Constraint violations/P238 Map Random list
Proposal discussion	Proposal discussion
Current uses	Total 9,619 Main statement 9,615 >99.9% of uses Qualifier 3 <0.1% of uses Reference 1 <0.1% of uses
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[create Create a translatable help page (preferably in English) for this property to be included here]

Type “airport (Q1248784), railway station (Q55488), aerodrome (Q62447), runway (Q184590)”: item must contain property “instance of (P31)” with classes “airport (Q1248784), railway station (Q55488), aerodrome (Q62447), runway (Q184590)” or their subclasses (defined using subclass of (P279)). (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303). Known exceptions: London (Q84), New York City (Q60), Paris (Q90), Moscow (Q649), Chicago (Q1297), Washington, D.C. (Q61), Tokyo (Q1490)
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#Type Q1248784, Q55488, Q62447, Q184590, SPARQL

Single value: this property generally contains a single value. (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#Single value, SPARQL

Distinct values: this property likely contains a value that is different from all other items. (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303). Known exceptions: EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (Q156971), Old Ishigaki Airport (Q705963)
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#Unique value, SPARQL (every item), SPARQL (by value)

Format “[A-Z]{3}”: value must be formatted using this pattern (PCRE syntax). (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#Format, SPARQL

Item “coordinate location (P625)”: Items with this property should also have “coordinate location (P625)”. (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#Item P625, SPARQL

Item “country (P17)”: Items with this property should also have “country (P17)”. (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#Item P17, search, SPARQL

Single best value: this property generally contains a single value. If there are several, one would have preferred rank (Help)

Exceptions are possible as rare values may exist. Exceptions can be specified using exception to constraint (P2303).
List of violations of this constraint: Database reports/Constraint violations/P238#single best value, SPARQL

This property is being used by: az:Şablon:Hava limanı2, az:Şablon:Hava limanı ca:Plantilla:Infotaula d'aeroport ce:Кеп:Аэропорт commons:Template:Wikidata Infobox/core, commons:Template:Airport/layout cs:Šablona:Infobox - letiště cy:Nodyn:Wikidata Infobox en:Template:Infobox airport/Wikidata es:Plantilla:Ficha de aeropuerto, es:Plantilla:Wikidata Infobox eu:Txantiloi:Eraikin infotaula automatikoa, eu:Txantiloi:Eraikin infotaula, eu:Txantiloi:Museo infotaula fr:Modèle:Infobox Aéroport, fr:Modèle:Infobox Ville de Chine, fr:Modèle:Infobox Aéroport/Bac à sable he:תבנית:שדה תעופה, he:תבנית:שדה תעופה/טבלה1 hu:Sablon:Repkód, hu:Sablon:Repülőtér infobox, hu:Sablon:Állomás infobox, hu:Sablon:ASN id:Templat:Wikidata infobox, id:Templat:Kotak info Wikidata/inti it:Template:Infobox aeroporto, it:Template:Aeroporto ja:Template:Airport-info ky:Калып:Аба майданы, ky:Калып:Аба майдан, ky:Калып:Аэропорт mr:साचा:विकिडाटा माहितीचौकट/core, mr:साचा:विकिडेटा माहितीचौकट/core mw:Template:Wikidata Infobox/core pt:Predefinição:Info/Aeroporto/Wikidata, pt:Predefinição:Wikidata Infobox/core ro:Format:Infocaseta Structură militară ru:Шаблон:Аэропорт ru:Шаблон:Карточка аэропорта sa:फलकम्:Wikidata Infobox uk:Шаблон:Аеропорт ur:سانچہ:خانہ معلومات ویکی ڈیٹا/کور, ur:سانچہ:Wikidata Infobox/core voy:de:Template:AirportCode voy:fr:Modèle:Info Aéroport yi:מוסטער:לופטפעלד/טאבעלע1 q:fr:Modèle:Wikidata Infobox/core de:Vorlage:Wikidata Infobox/core gu:ઢાંચો:Wikidata Infobox/core ta:வார்ப்புரு:Wikidata Infobox/core hi:साँचा:Wikidata Infobox/core be:Шаблон:Аэрапорт ast:Plantía:Edificiu, ast:Plantía:Monte, ast:Plantía:Universidá, ast:Plantía:Códigos aeroportuarios, ast:Plantía:Edificiu2 sv:Mall:Wikidata Infobox/core s:zh:Template:Wikidata Infobox/core ckb:داڕێژە:Wikidata Infobox/core diq:Şablon:Ca ha:Template:Infobox building incubator:Template:Wp/shi/Infobox building kab:Talɣa:Infobox building ku:Şablon:Wikidata Infobox/core mnw:ထာမ်ပလိက်:Wikidata Infobox/core shi:Talɣa:Infobox building d:Template:Wikidata Infobox/core oc:Modèl:Infobox Aeropòrt no:Mal:Wikidata Infobox/core s:ban:Mal:Wikidata Infobox/core ban:Mal:Wikidata Infobox/core lv:Veidne:Wikidata Infobox/core nl:Sjabloon:Infobox luchthaven roa-tara:Template:Aeropuerte ary:موضيل:معلومات مطار voy:shn:ထႅမ်းပလဵတ်ႉ:Wikidata Infobox s:hi:साँचा:Wikidata Infobox/core Please notify projects that use this property before big changes (renaming, deletion, merge with another property, etc.)

Request to change en title to IATA airport code

I want to have the title changed to IATA airport code, in order to avoid conflict with the IATA airline code property. Harryboyles (talk) 10:35, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Have done so. Harryboyles (talk) 10:41, 7 March 2013 (UTC)

Please change the title to "IATA location code" or "IATA location identifier" to avoid reverts by misleaded users (see history at Q698145). This three letter code is valid for airports, train stations, cities and sometimes more. It's not an airport code purely. IATA itself is calling it a location code too (compare https://www.iata.org/en/services/codes/). --4omni (talk) 06:15, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

I know there is IATA codes for trains stations, heliports, very large cities and so on. But they aren't verifiable as IATA does not provide search for heliport/train stations, as they are not airports. Therefore I think IATA airport code (P238) should be mostly airports/heliports, if there is verifiability from IATA search tool. Another property would be a good idea for (the not-for-airports IATA codes, as they also are less consistent in uniqueness). Bouzinac (talk) 12:39, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

IATA codes for train stations

Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Q1097) has an IATA code even though it is a train station rather than an airport. This is actually a legitimate IATA code, presumably because travel agents might use IATA codes to book journeys that comprise both airline and international train segments. I'm not sure whether this weird exception should change how the consistency reports and rules are set up. —Tom Morris (talk) 20:36, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

Hi Tom Morris,

I came here for the exact same reason (but about Rennes railway station (Q1866058)). I hesitate to add it as an exception but there a lot of them apparently so I changed the constraint instead.

Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 15:22, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

Even some metropolitan areas with multiple airport have IATA codes (examples: NYC - New York City, BER - Berlin, YTO - Toronto, PAR - Paris). --MB-one (talk) 09:19, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Is there a way to modify the constraint that items with IATA codes must have ICAO codes? Most of these railway stations do not have ICAO codes. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 09:25, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

I would rather advocate for a "iata airport code property + "iata train station code" property instead...Bouzinac (talk) 09:54, 2 December 2018 (UTC)

IATA codes aren't truly unique

The property constraint distinct-values constraint (Q21502410) is not really helpful for IATA codes, since IATA codes can be transferred from one airport to another and this is not even an especially rare occurrence. --MB-one (talk) 09:16, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Furthermore, there can be an old airport using the code XXX until date X and afterwards gets YYY. Exemple NGO Nagoya. Can it be precised that one code may apply to ONLY one airport at the same time ? --Bouzinac (talk) 21:47, 23 July 2018 (UTC)

Why is this not an "identifier" data type?

IATA code is clearly an identifier for an airport, so why is the data type "string"? I was expecting to see this property listed among the "identifiers" of an item, not in its "statements". Apparently, that would require the data type to be changed to "external identifier". For a similar example, see COSPAR ID (P247), which is correctly listed as an identifier. I don't see how the IATA code is different. — JFG ^talk 21:43, 23 August 2018 (UTC)

@JFG: the datatype "external identifier" is a string that needs an external website for the links ; as far as I know, there is no such site for the IATA. Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 15:54, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

Apparently, IATA sells access to its database airport codes, but there are plenty of freely available online directories of IATA codes. Could we simply use one of those? (picking a well-maintained one, of course) — JFG ^talk 16:16, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

@JFG: I'm not sure... The best would be to ask for a new property (on Wikidata:Property proposal, datatype can't be changed, we have to create a new property and delete the old one) and to see where the discussion goes (it seems a good idea but more point of view - and more expert one - would be useful). Plus, I must correct myself, I was wrong: a formatter URL is almost always defined but technically it's not "needed". Cdlt, VIGNERON (talk) 16:45, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the correction. We should perhaps bring this to the attention of more people. The same logic would apply to ICAO airport code (P239), which is also a string instead of an identifier. Both of those properties must have been created at the same time with the same reasoning. Pinging a few users who recently opined in my suggestions for other airport-related properties DBUnico MIBACT ID (P5782) and VOR/DME airport beacon ID (P5803). @ ديفيد عادل وهبة خليل 2 , ArthurPSmith , Pintoch , YULdigitalpreservation: — JFG ^talk 16:53, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

See the discussion just above this one - IATA codes are re-used, so they are NOT unique identifiers for airports and don't meet the criteria we set up when we transitioned other string properties to "external identifier" that did qualify. However, there may be a way to make this work using deprecation, time-based qualifiers etc. if somebody is willing to look into it a bit more on what the actual criteria are for re-use etc. Being a proprietary code may make that harder though. ArthurPSmith (talk) 19:18, 10 October 2018 (UTC)

IATA Location Identifier

Reference for the IATA Location Identifiers (LI): https://www.iata.org/publications/store/Pages/airline-coding-directory.aspx

• Specifications: https://www.iata.org/services/Documents/location-identifiers-specifications-2011.pdf
• Sample: https://www.iata.org/publications/Documents/acd-location-identifiers-sample-20120515.pdf

We should hence talk about IATA Location Identifiers (LI), in IATA parlance, as those codes can be assigned to any travel-/transport-related point of reference (POR), including, but not limited to, cities (location type: C), airports (location type: A), heliports (location type: H), ferry/maritime ports (location type: P), bus stations (location type: B) and railway stations (location type: R), "offline" points (most of the time, just a populated location; location type: O).

By the way, on the famous IATA code search page (https://www.iata.org/publications/Pages/code-search.aspx), in the selector, it is specified "Location Code" (rather than airport code), and when you select it, the help text for that field is "Enter city / airport code", hinting that cities are assigned IATA location identifiers (IATA codes) too.

• A tricky example is EAP, assigned to both Basel (Q78) and Mulhouse (Q79815).
• Another example is RDU, assigned to both Raleigh (Q41087) and Durham (Q49229).
• Non exhaustive examples of large cities (metropolitan areas) being assigned distinct IATA codes from the POR serving them: London (Q84) (IATA code: LON), Chicago (Q1297) (IATA code: CHI), New York City (Q60) (IATA code: NYC), Paris (Q90) (IATA code: PAR), Berlin (Q64) (IATA code: BER), Moscow (Q649) (IATA code: MOW)

Now, the issue is that on the above-mentioned public page, only the cities and airports are shown for a given code, not the records for the other location types. Only in the Location Identifier (LI) data files, which they sell, appear the codes for the other location types (eg, heliports, bus and railway stations). However, as it has been mentioned in other sections above, it is possible to book trips encompassing other location types, and those codes are therefore public. For instance:

• Air Greenland (Q407292) gets quite a lot of heliports in the list of its destinations (as Greenland has slightly more heliports than airports), and all of those heliports have been assigned a IATA code/location identifier. An example is Tasiilaq Heliport (Q62423) (IATA code: AGM).
• The same way, other heliports having a IATA code are Hanchey Army Heliport (Q3886916) (IATA code: HEY), Andorra la Vella Heliport (Q9287543) (IATA code: ALV), etc.
• On another hand, big airlines such as Lufthansa (Q9325) operate bus and train trips to/from its main hubs, and the corresponding stops/stations are also assigned IATA codes/location identifiers. Examples are Dortmund Central Station (Q704394) (IATA code: DTZ), Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Q6456) (IATA code: ZMB) and Mannheim Central Station (Q706994) (IATA code: MHJ).
• Also, as it has been mentioned, the main high-speed lines throughout the world have railway stations with IATA codes, such that the corresponding train trips may be booked through the classical travel-related reservation systems (eg, GDS, travel agencies, online sites). Such railway stations are Chongqing North railway station (Q5104670) (IATA code: CQD) in China (CN), Lille-Europe railway station (Q801099) (IATA code: XDB) in France (FR) and Toledo railway station (Q801520) (IATA code: XTJ) in Spain (ES).

Another kind of issue is that, in IATA parlance, a city, or metropolitan area as it is also sometimes referred to, actually refers to a populated area, which may be, among other entities, a city, an island, a homestead, a local area, a (national/regional) park, even a lake. For instance:

• The SMA IATA code explicitly refers to Santa Maria Island (Q217262) (because there is an airport nearby, Santa Maria Airport (Q1432755)), which is an island, on which there is no eponym city, and there can be no ambiguity here.
• The BCE IATA code refers to Bryce Canyon National Park (Q219562) (because there is an aerodrome nearby, Bryce Canyon Airport (Q3886900)), which is a national park.
• The CJH IATA code refers to Tŝilhqox Biny (Q316421) (because there is an aerodrome nearby, Chilko Lake (Tsylos Park Lodge) Aerodrome (Q3274103)), which is a lake.
• You get the idea

Proposal - Change Data type of IATA airport code (P238) from String to External identifier

I think String is the wrong type for IATA airport code (P238). Can we please change it to be External identifier.

As per Help:Data_type#Changing_datatype please indicate support/opposition below. Iwan.Aucamp (talk) 16:52, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

Discussion

•  Comment for your attention @JFG: Iwan.Aucamp (talk) 17:08, 15 October 2019 (UTC)
•  Oppose See the above discussion where this has come up over and over. This is not a unique identifier for an airport. ArthurPSmith (talk) 17:19, 15 October 2019 (UTC)

The property value will be transformed to uppercase automatically. Testing: TODO list