IATA Codes and Entity IDs

For places and locations, our Travel APIs use iata, or entityId. You can choose which type you wish to use, as the location object will accept either of these identifiers.

Here are some examples, with IATA code and Entity ID being used:

{
  "query": {
    ...
    "queryLegs": [
      {
        "originPlaceId": {
          "iata": "EDI" // The IATA code for "Edinburgh Airport"
        },
        "destinationPlaceId": {
          "entityId": "27544008" // The Entity ID for the geographical city "London"
        },
      }
    ]
    ...
  }
}

tip

We recommend using Entity IDs, which are unique and thus help resolve ambiguous cases, such as when a city and one of its airports share the same code.

IATA codes

IATA codes are used by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to identify airports, airlines, and other entities in the aviation industry. These codes are primarily employed for ticketing, scheduling, and other administrative purposes.

Airport IATA codes are the most common type and consist of three letters. They are used to identify airports and metropolitan areas globally. For example, LAX is the IATA code for Los Angeles International Airport in the United States.

Airline codes are generally two letters long and serve to identify individual airlines. For example, BA is the IATA code for British Airways.

IATA codes are widely recognized and employed across the aviation industry, providing a standardized way to identify and reference various entities, thereby streamlining operations and improving efficiency.

For a full list of available IATA codes, please visit this page.

Entity IDs

Entity IDs are Skyscanner's internal codes used to identify all the geographical entities we support. These IDs are unique to Skyscanner and do not have meaning outside of the Travel APIs. Unlike IATA codes, Entity IDs are guaranteed to be unique, making them preferable for avoiding ambiguous searches, such as when an airport and city share the same IATA code.

How do you get an IATA code or Entity ID?

We provide a Geo API where you can find all the IATA codes and Entity IDs. For more information, see Geo API Documentation.

We also offer an Autosuggest API that returns both IATA codes and Entity IDs. For more details, see Autosuggest API Documentation.

ICAO codes

While IATA codes are commonly used by airlines and travel agents for commercial operations, ICAO codes are the "official" identifiers employed by the aviation industry. They provide a more comprehensive method for identifying airports and airlines.

ICAO codes consist of three characters for airlines and four for airports. For example, London Heathrow Airport, with IATA code LHR, has the ICAO code EGLL. Similarly, British Airways, with IATA code BA, has the ICAO code BAW.

Some of our Travel APIs return ICAO codes, as well as IATA and Entity IDs, in their response. However, our Travel APIs only accept IATA or Entity IDs when specifying locations in API requests.