GeoNames Forum

Hi*,
first of all thanks for the great work!

Is there any documentation about sql queries for reproduce webservices output with local dump? (joins, where and so on?)
Is there a way to find alternate names for IATA coded airports?

Thanks again!

The IATA codes for airports are in the alternatename table with a pseudo language code 'iata'.

Marc

Yes I've also stuck over alternate names for airports, in some cases the colloquial name, which everyone uses, isn't the IATA name or the name in the geoname table. For example, Gatwick airport, is simple known as Gatwick or maybe Gatwick airport. No one would use the name London Gatwick except on official documents. Likewise with Stansted airport. But Stansted airport has an entry in the alternate names table as simply "Stansted", while "London/Gatwick Airport" doesn't. So searching for "Gatwick' in the geonames or alternate names tables won't return anything (unless you use 'containing'). Irritating little inconsistency which makes it that much harder to link stuff from other sources, such as hotels databases which just use the colloquial names.

Hi John

Please feel free to add missing alternate names with the wiki- edit interface: http://www.geonames.org/manual.html

Best

Marc