mwgg
commented
3 months ago @alexander-san Nothing against having a separate regional identifier field to distinguish those from the proper IATA codes, apart from the amount of work it would take to populate them throughout. Most would just sit empty, and that wouldn't make it very useful.
Having a regional identifier in the iata field where an actual IATA code isn't available is not too horrible, I think, at least for now. Many sources do that as well, as you've discovered while cross checking these.
IATA code additions
DE: EDLA/ZCA, EDOV/ZSN, EDRK/ZNV, EDRT/ZQF, EDRY/ZQC FR: LFHV/XVF, LFLH/XCD, LFLT/MCU, LFTU/FRJ EU(general): ENJA/ZXB, ESML/JLD RU: ULBC/CEE, UUBD/KMW CA: CBW4/YBO, CCD4/YSO, CCE4/YBI, CNK4/YPD, CPV8/KEW, CTK6/ZKG, CYAV/YAV, CYBW/YBW, CYDC/YDC, CYEE/YEE, CYFD/YFD, CYGE/YGE, CYJM/YJM, CYJQ/ZEL International: MMTA/TXA (MX), OIAI/QMJ (IR), SBCD/CFC (BR), SIAM/MSI (BR), VOYK/YLK (IN), YWHI/WSY (AU) Alaska: PAGH/SHG
Please note that this was compiled to the best of my abilities and cross-checked; however, it was difficult as often some sources say there is no IATA code and other sources do list the IATA code. I was thinking if it would make sense to review the PR before merging it @mwgg @jmion
Further remarks
I left out the US airports which have no IATA code but an FAA LID (cf. wikipedia.org/wiki/Location_identifier
We could consider adding a regional_airport_identifier which would allow us to keep the ICAO and IATA codes clean while providing a fallback with a designated but not standardized identifier @mwgg let me know what you think or if I should raise a dedicated issue regarding that as I saw it has been coming up quite a lot during the past PRs from others.