Wikipedia:WikiProject Airports/Notability

This page provides advice intended to be used by Wikipedia editors to decide whether an airport (or aerodrome) is notable for the purposes of having a separate article on Wikipedia. While satisfying these notability guidelines generally indicates an airport warrants an article, failing to satisfy them is not a criterion for speedy deletion.

These guidelines may be considered a specialized version of Notability, applied to airports, reflecting the following core Wikipedia policies:
 * Wikipedia articles must not be vehicles for advertisement
 * Verifiability
 * No original research
 * Wikipedia is not a soapbox
 * Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information
 * Wikipedia is not a crystal ball

Claims of notability must adhere to Wikipedia's policy on attribution; it is not enough to simply assert that an airport meets a criterion without substantiating that claim with reliable sources.

Definitions
For the purpose of these guidelines an airport is defined as any facility on land or water that is designed to handle manned aircraft.

The terms "airfield" and "aerodrome" are considered synonymous with "airport" for this guideline.

A "public airport" is one which is open to the public, or the closest equivalent for the country it is in, regardless of whether it is privately-owned or government-owned. Airports which require prior permission from the owner for landing are considered private.

Coverage notes
In order to make a guideline which is sensible around the world, it cannot go into every detail. The editors involved in a decision of notability of an airport are encouraged to take these criteria into account and make the best informed decision consistent with Wikipedia policy and precedents. Please consider what makes sense relative to other airports for the region.

No inherent notability
Airports do not have inherent notability, as notability requires verifiable evidence. As with some government records that are available on the Internet, airport registrations cast a wider net than Wikipedia should.

Past experience with articles for deletion have had arguments that hung solely on the existence of government records to satisfy notability for small unattended or private airports. The consensus has been that a guideline was needed to determine that the government records alone are not enough.

Airport codes and other comprehensive lists provide verifiability
Notability is not a reflection of an airport's "worth". An ICAO, IATA or national government-issued airport code provides verifiability. Except for historical airfields, an airport must start with this verifiability step. But Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate collection of information. This provides guidance to Wikipedia editors in how to determine notability of an airport based on prior experience from the community.

Likewise, listing in any comprehensive list only serves for verifiability, but not for notability unless an exception is specifically allowed here.

Historical airfields which have served a role in wartime or early aviation history may be notable without a current airport registration.

Reliable sources required
The basic notability requirement still applies. Significant, independent and reliable sources specifically about the airport must exist.

Criteria
Articles including stubs may be notable as airports based on the guidelines listed below.

Runway surface and length are not factors for notability
Runway surface (paved or unpaved) and length of runways are not factors in the notability of an airport on their own. Airports around the world vary too much to make a Wikipedia-wide standard about this. In general, leave the runways out of the consideration - other factors will determine notability more reliably.

Heliports tend not to be notable on their own
Heliports are usually part of some other facility. Unless there is a significant body of reliable source material specifically about the heliport, it should usually be simply included in the article about the facility it serves. (Of course, that facility has to already be notable to have its own article.) And even in that case consider whether it's relevant to mention it at all. Heliports with scheduled passenger services exist mainly on islands without any airport. Such heliports might be notable for an article but can also be included in the article about the island.

Private airports tend not to be notable on their own
Any unattended airport or any privately-owned airport not open to the public and not marketed in public are factors which cause a higher standard to be imposed for the significance (quality and quantity) of the airport's sources. Generally they are not notable unless they have very significant reliable sources (not including a required airport registration) to make them notable.

There's a reason behind this. Besides the observation that these airports usually are not notable, we don't want to tempt Wikipedia editors to be a paparazzi trying to collect information about private land or their owners. We as a community should encourage respect for their privacy.

Scheduled passenger airline service
An airport which currently has, or previously had, scheduled airline passenger service is likely to be notable, but this not sufficient for notability on its own.

General Aviation airports
General aviation (civilian non-airline) airports which meet one of the following criteria are co likely to be notable:
 * it is marketed to the public for aviation-related services
 * it is currently or formerly owned by a local, regional or national government entity

The public-use status of a general aviation airport is not a direct factor in notability of an airport - it is an indirect factor only because it is not subject to the section above that discourages notability for private-use airports. The criteria for General Aviation airport notability were intended to set the bar slightly higher than simply accepting all public-use airports. The problem was shown by counter-examples including farm airstrips which are technically listed as open to the public but serve no actual public purpose or interest. These criteria were intended to retain a simple unambiguous boundary for notability of General Aviation airports.

Other useful information about a General Aviation airport are usually not on their own factors in its notability. These include existence of government airport database information, having on-field services (including fuel, flight training, maintenance/repairs, food, ground transportation or others), having documented ongoing operations and/or being a business/recreational/research/etc destination.

Other cases
Current or former military or government airfields, as well as closed airfields or airfields yet to open, are notable if they meet the general notability guideline.

Landmarks associated with airports
Notability of a landmark within, near or surrounding an airport does not affect the notability of the airport unless it is directly aviation related.

Airport lists
Airport list articles should comply with the Wikipedia Lists guidelines at WP:L. Airport lists may be synergistic with categories and/or navigation templates according to the guidelines at WP:CLN.

An airport list topic is notable if the topic can be expected to include a significant portion or significant total number of airports which are notable. It should not have the expectation that it will always be mostly non-notable airports. Though a majority is not necessarily the only way to determine significance

Lists of airports in a particular area may mention all airports, notable or otherwise, with applicable codes and coordinates. However, redlinks to airports unlikely to be deemed notable should be avoided. Instead, just use the name of the non-notable airport without making it a link. Redlinks should only be used in cases where this guideline has been considered and the airport article will clearly be considered notable.

An example of a topic which has failed in AfD discussion, therefore not considered notable, is lists of private-use airports. These should be discouraged for the same reasons above that articles about private airports are generally considered non-notable.