Airports

What airports does

airports combines two airport data sources behind MCP tools. AirportGap provides live, free, keyless access to a static OpenFlights-derived snapshot. Its tools cover airport searches, airport details, and straight-line distance calculations using IATA codes. City-name searches rely on a bundled map covering roughly 150 major international hubs.

The gateway also exposes a copy of the public-domain OurAirports dataset. This broader source contains roughly 86,000 airfields, including commercial airports, smaller fields, heliports, seaplane bases, balloonports, and closed facilities. Records can include airport metadata, scheduled-service status, runways, radio frequencies, and navigation aids.

How it works

The hosted MCP endpoint is available at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/airports/mcp. A client can connect to that URL and call the airport tools through MCP. The endpoint also includes shared Pipeworx tools such as discovery and cross-catalog question routing, so its tool list is larger than the airport-specific set.

The same gateway offers a full endpoint at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp. Both endpoints use the Pipeworx gateway, but the airport URL lists the airport pack directly while the full URL lists all available packs directly.

A local package is also available through stdio:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "airports": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-airports"]
    }
  }
}

The local process communicates over standard input and output and includes the airport pack's tools without the gateway's shared meta-tools. AirportGap-backed operations remain keyless locally. OurAirports-backed operations depend on the gateway's D1 copy and return a clear runtime error when used outside that environment.

Setup and configuration

For a hosted connection, add the following MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "airports": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/airports/mcp"
    }
  }
}

No account or API key is needed for the initial hosted calls. Clients that do not use MCP directly can call the HTTP tool endpoint, for example:

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_airports \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"query":"New York"}'

Tools and capabilities

AirportGap-backed tools include:

• search_airports: finds airports by supported city name or three-letter IATA code. Cities with multiple primary airports can return multiple results.
• get_airport: returns an airport's name, city, country, coordinates, altitude, and timezone from an IATA code.
• calculate_distance: calculates great-circle distance between two IATA-coded airports in kilometers and miles.

OurAirports-backed tools include:

• ourairports_lookup: resolves ICAO, IATA, GPS, local, or national identifiers and returns airfield details.
• airport_runways: returns runway dimensions, surfaces, lighting, closure status, and end-level data.
• airport_frequencies: returns radio frequency types, descriptions, and MHz values.
• airport_navaids: returns associated navigation aids, including type, frequency, coordinates, elevation, and related technical fields.
• ourairports_search: searches by text, country, or airfield type with pagination and a default limit of 20 results, up to 100.

Limitations and notes

AirportGap uses an older snapshot with limited city coverage. A missing airport can reflect that dataset's age rather than an upstream outage. Use an IATA code or the OurAirports tools when broader coverage is needed.

OurAirports identifier resolution uses a defined precedence order: canonical local identifier, ICAO, GPS code, then IATA code. Unknown identifiers produce an error rather than an empty successful response. A valid airfield can still return an empty child collection when it has no matching runways, frequencies, or navaids.

The gateway's OurAirports copy is refreshed manually from bulk CSV files, and lookup responses include a data timestamp. OurAirports data is public domain and carries no guarantee of accuracy or fitness for a particular use.