Finding all airports in given country or region using Overpass API?

Question

I'm starting using the Overpass API and I would like to request airports data in some given regions and countries.

So for instance, I've written,

{{geocodeArea:Île-de-France}}->.searchArea;
node["aeroway"="aerodrome"](area.searchArea);
out;

To find all the airports in the Paris region.

Nevertheless, it only returns two very small aerodromes, but not the two main airports.

Is the data incomplete or is my request not properly written ?

Answer 1

The best starting point for overpass queries is the Openstreetmap wiki, follow the overpass-turbo link on the left. It generates the following query:

[out:json][timeout:25];
// gather results
(
  // query part for: “aeroway=aerodrome”
  node["aeroway"="aerodrome"]({{bbox}});
  way["aeroway"="aerodrome"]({{bbox}});
  relation["aeroway"="aerodrome"]({{bbox}});
);
// print results
out body;
>;
out skel qt;

You have to move the map to the area of interest, or modify the query like this:

area["name"="Île-de-France"]->.boundaryarea;
(
node(area.boundaryarea)["aeroway"="aerodrome"];
way(area.boundaryarea)["aeroway"="aerodrome"];>;
relation(area.boundaryarea)["aeroway"="aerodrome"];>>;
);
out meta;

You will get 2 relations, 37 ways and 2031 nodes, or in GIS notation 24 polygons, 9 lines and 16 POI.

Answer 2

National Transportation Atlas Database

http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/sites/rita.dot.gov.bts/files/publications/national_transportation_atlas_database/index.html

ICAO

http://gis.icao.int/gallery/

Answer 3

You could try GeoNames API. I use it for a very similar purpose. See the documentation here. Note the documentation on searchLanguage and IATA codes!

Alternatively you could look at OpenFlight database.