Template talk:Infobox airline

Listing hubs

The instructions for this template say that editors should use the full name of the airline's hubs, secondary hubs, focus cities and operating bases. That can lead to a situation like what we see on the Saudia page where the list reads like this:

• King Abdulaziz International Airport
• King Khalid International Airport
• King Fahd International Airport

This is absolutely meaningless to the casual reader (our audience) and probably many knowledgeable readers too. I'd like to propose we move to a system of using the same city names as we use elsewhere (such as Template:Airport-dest-list). Under my proposal, the above example would look like this:

• Dammam
• Jeddah
• Riyadh

-- RickyCourtney (talk) 20:58, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

I also want to point out that the current situation is that roughly half of pages follow my proposed format. The other half sort of follow the template's suggested format. However, none I've seen actually use the Wikidata entries that the template calls for. -- RickyCourtney (talk) 21:17, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

On the one hand, we have to bear in mind WP:NOTRAVEL regarding the casual reader. On the other hand, an airline hub is defined as an airport, not as a city.--Jetstreamer ^Talk 21:23, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

When many airlines list their hubs, they use city names, not airport names. Examples: Alaska Airlines, Delta Air Lines. RickyCourtney (talk) 22:07, 25 August 2023 (UTC)

You are talking about websites external to Wikipedia.--Jetstreamer ^Talk 00:12, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Well, here is a selection of airlines that use my proposed format:

• • Aeroméxico
  • Air Canada
  • Air China
  • Air France
  • Air India
  • Air New Zealand
  • Alaska Airlines
  • All Nippon Airways
  • American Airlines
  • Asiana Airlines
  • Avianca
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific
  • China Airlines
  • China Eastern Airlines
  • Delta Air Lines
  • EVA Air
  • Finnair
  • Garuda Indonesia
  • ITA Airways
  • Japan Airlines
  • KLM
  • Korean Air
  • LOT Polish Airlines
  • Royal Jordanian
  • Scandinavian Airlines
  • Shenzhen Airlines
  • South African Airways
  • SriLankan Airlines
  • United Airlines
  • Vietnam Airlines
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • XiamenAir

All of these are stable edits, in other words, not made by me in the last few weeks. I'll point out that that list includes Air Canada, the airline used as the example for this template. It's been a very stable edit, in place for more than four years. -- RickyCourtney (talk) 00:46, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

It doesn't matter if they are stable or not, they do not follow the proposed guidelines of this template. We are discussing a change in the template's guidelines in order to proceed with your proposed changes. Looking if your changes have been applied for changing the guidelines is much like demanding for the weather to rain just because you have an umbrella.--Jetstreamer ^Talk 13:34, 26 August 2023 (UTC)

Response to third opinion request:

How about this? King Abdulaziz International Airport, Dammam King Khalid International Airport, Jeddah King Fahd International Airport, Riyadh Or if that's too long: King Abdulaziz Int'l Arpt., Dammam King Khalid Int'l Arpt., Jeddah King Fahd Int'l Arpt., Riyadh 206.204.236.63 (talk) 00:55, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

206.204.236.63 (talk) 00:54, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

That is an interesting proposal.--Jetstreamer ^Talk 13:11, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Saudia
السعودية

IATA ICAO Call sign SV SVA SAUDIA
Founded	September 1945 (1945-09)
Hubs	King Fahd International Airport, Dammam King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah King Khalid International Airport, Riyadh
Frequent-flyer program	Al Fursan Loyalty
Alliance	SkyTeam SkyTeam Cargo
Subsidiaries	Flyadeal
Fleet size	151
Destinations	121
Parent company	Government of Saudi Arabia
Headquarters	Jeddah
Key people	Saleh Aljasser (Chairman) Ibrahim Alomar (Director General) Ibrahim Alkoshy (CEO)
Website	saudia.com

References

Edit request 27 September 2023: Directly link to Toolforge tool

Please apply this sandbox diff to the template (the sandbox was previously identical to the template, so copying the full contents should be enough). This will change the ISIN link to directly link to the tool instead of going via the iw.toolforge.org/isin redirect, slightly speeding up the request for users and improving Special:LinkSearch integration. (Compare recent edit requests on Template talk:Photo requested and Template talk:Image requested.) Lucas Werkmeister (talk) 23:00, 27 September 2023 (UTC)

 Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 00:45, 28 September 2023 (UTC)

Native names

This template should probably use fields like |native_name= and |native_name_lang (or even just |native_name=), instead of using <br/>, to better comply with MOS:NOBR and MOS:FOREIGN.

The template examples could change from

| airline = El Al Israel Airlines <br/> אל על

| airline = China Southern Airlines <br/> 中国南方航空公司 <br/> ''Zhōngguó Nánfāng Hángkōng Gōngsī''

to

| airline = El Al Israel Airlines |native_name={{native name|he|אל על|paren=no}} |native_name_lang=il

| airline = China Southern Airlines |native_name={{native name|zh|中国南方航空公司|paren=no }} |native_name_lang=zh

to yield

El Al Israel Airlines

אל על

China Southern Airlines

中国南方航空公司

Templates like {{infobox university}} don't include the parenthetical, e.g., (Hebrew) or (Chinese), or transliterations, so this also probably shouldn't. Snowman304|talk 23:32, 10 May 2026 (UTC)

adding parameters

Hey. Could these parameters be added?

• type / company type (for example Sociedad Anónima)
• air services (for example Passenger flights, Cargo activity, Aircraft maintenance
• owner (for example Banco de Chile (58%), Delta Air Lines (10%), Qatar Airways (10%), Banco Santander Chile (7%))

And could the parameter "airline" be renamed to "name"? Because the airline infobox is also used for airline groups like Ryanair Holdings and Wizz Air Holdings. And for airline groups "name" fits better than "airline". WikiPate (talk) 12:56, 24 May 2026 (UTC)

@P.I. Ellsworth, @Pppery WikiPate (talk) 00:31, 26 May 2026 (UTC)

Add option to use international English

Currently, the template only uses American English (at least, in the output of the field Frequent flyer program). There's no way to change this to use international English (e.g., programme). There should be an option to use whichever one is appropriate for the page it's on.

My recommendation is to do what many other infoboxes do, which is to just have two different parameters for either option, where the user has to pick (e.g., frequent_flyer_program vs. frequent_flyer_programme). Given that the current parameter is simply frequent_flyer, this parameter can default to frequent_flyer_program but be deprecated so that consumers get a message to change to one of the non-deprecated parameters. Tstcikhthys1 (talk) 20:15, 1 July 2026 (UTC)

Possible tweaks

Template:Infobox airline under the "image" section says "Filename of an image. Main headquarters, ticket counter or an aircraft to demonstrate livery (optional)". Due to a discussion at User talk:Cubnorth#Canadian North I believe that particular line needs tweaking.

My opinion is that they are listed in order of priority. I think that to avoid disagreements over what type of aircraft is pictured a image of the HQ is a better and more neutral choice and the aircraft livery can be shown in images elsewhere on the page. The same reason applies to the ticket counter.

If neither of the first two are not available and an aircraft is used then then is should not just demonstrate the current livery but representative of main type of aircraft flown, and, if an airport is included, one of the ones the airline operates to on a regular basis. CambridgeBayWeather (#1 deranged), Uqaqatigijaa (talk), Huliva 18:57, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

@CambridgeBayWeather I don't read the current wording as establishing an order of priority, just three examples of acceptable images. I also don't think we should change it to create a strict HQ-> ticket counter-> aircraft hierarchy. For most airlines, the aircraft and livery are far more recognizable and representative of the airline than its headquarters or ticket counter. I agree that if an aircraft is used it should be one of the airline's main fleet types, in its current livery, and at a location it regularly serves. But I think the best available and most representative image should ultimately be used rather than automatically giving preference to the HQ. Quintin Soloviev (talk) 20:18, 8 August 2026 (UTC)

I'm happy enough with that. And if that's the way it turns out the order should be change and state that the preferred image is an aircraft, etc. CambridgeBayWeather (#1 deranged), Uqaqatigijaa (talk), Huliva 20:22, 8 August 2026 (UTC)