nearest_airport
Find the nearest airports to any latitude/longitude coordinates, sorted by distance. Filter by airport type and search radius. Returns distance in kilometers.
Instructions
Find the airports nearest to a caller-provided latitude/longitude, sorted by great-circle (haversine) distance with distance_km on each result. Searches 85,555 airports (OurAirports, public domain).
Provide latitude and longitude (decimal degrees); optional radius_km, max_results (1-50, default 10) and type filter (e.g. large_airport only). Coordinates are INPUT only — nothing is stored or logged.
Behavior: deterministic distance sort; confidence reflects proximity and airport size (a large airport within 25 km scores high; closed/heliport/seaplane results cap lower). This tool does NOT geocode place names and does NOT compute routes — pass coordinates you already hold. Rate-limited (anonymous use: 25 requests/day per IP): a 429 error body carries retry_after_seconds and a Retry-After header — back off and retry, or call get_subscribe_link for higher limits.
Returns: count and results[] (the airport record plus distance_km) under result, plus confidence, _source and citation (the FreightUtils v1 response envelope).
Limitations: reference data only — not for navigation; verify codes with IATA / ICAO.
Related: airport_lookup (exact code or name lookup, no distance), unlocode_lookup (named transport-location search).
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| type | No | Optional filter by airport type. Example: "large_airport". | |
| latitude | Yes | Latitude in decimal degrees (-90 to 90). Example: 51.47. | |
| longitude | Yes | Longitude in decimal degrees (-180 to 180). Example: -0.4543. | |
| radius_km | No | Maximum distance in kilometres — omit for no radius cap. | |
| max_results | No | Maximum results (1-50). Default: 10. |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| ok | Yes | ||
| result | Yes | ||
| _source | Yes | ||
| citation | Yes | ||
| validity | No | ||
| warnings | No | ||
| confidence | Yes | ||
| blocking_errors | No | ||
| envelope_version | Yes | ||
| normalized_input | No |