Top Travel and Booking API’s for Travel Industry(flight)

A few years back, the online bookings of hotels, travel tickets especially flight tickets are used to book through travel agents. But things have changed with the rise of internet usage growth. Everything available on smartphones with good control. The customers can book/Cancel/Post/Prepone tickets with simple options. Have you ever wondered where this OTA gets these flights data from? Actually, GDS’s have a database and they share with various OTA’s and OTA’s also get data from GDS for the areas which are not in their coverage through API’s. The API you select will play a key role in fetching database from GDS and others. So, let’s have a look at various top API providers.

An API is a medium between different software products, which links them without interfering with the source code. Besides flight APIs, there are car rental or hotel booking APIs that can be integrated into a website so that the visitors could connect to third-party services without switching between websites. Flight APIs works the same way: You can integrate them into your website or app for a fee and provide your users with the opportunity to book flights and access different flight data.

GDS APIs:

Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport are leading GDS among all. Also, there are smaller regional GDSs like Travelsky (China), KIU System (Latin America), Sirena-Travel (Russia), Axess and Infini from Japan, and more. When a travel agency or a flight search app requires a GDS connection, they need a solution to connect their software with it. For this purpose, Application Programming Interface or API exists.

APIs provided by the GDSs usually charge for integration and per request, asking for commission for each booking that way made from the point of integration. Now, let’s look at these APIs and their functionality.

Amadeus APIs

Amadeus GDS is the biggest distribution system that connects users to over 700 airlines for seat and cargo reservation. And also the ability to integrate with Sabre and Travelport GDS.

Via its GDS, Amadeus presents an application for business booking Amadeus cytric Travel & Expense, an app that allows users to search and book flights via mobile, displays the real-time booking for air travel. This set of APIs is available for production needs. The flight API allows users to:

  • Find fares
  • Access flight info
  • Book ancillary services (including travel insurance)
  • Pay for tickets
  • Get utility information
  • Receive a sales report

Apart from above, these APIs have customer profiles and queue management solutions. There are several other APIs for every type of distribution, either for booking or information retrieval or for displaying flight schedules and the lowest fares.

Pyton Flight Portal API

The Pyton Flight Portal is a part of the Amadeus IT Group. Pyton provides two types of solutions they’re embracing both flights and leisure reservation.

Pyton Flight Portal API/XML is a solution-focused on low-cost carriers. It provides direct connections to 100+ low-cost airlines worldwide. The functions of the API are:

  • One way and round trip support
  • Various types of payments (credit and debit card, virtual payment)
  • Speed-boarding
  • Ancillary services booking (luggage, speed-boarding and airport check-in)
  • Fares and seat selection
  • Low-costs flights cached data

It doesn’t come with travel insurance for bookings and scheduling functionality.

Sabre APIs

Sabre GDS gives access to 400 airlines and B2B solutions via Sabre Red 360, an online travel platform for agencies, providers, and developers that allows customers to access the whole set of services to book. In 2015, Sabre bought Abacus, the leading GDS in Asia, with headquarters in Singapore. It is now owned by Sabre and 11 Asian airlines. The GDS has the largest access to data from airlines, including Chinese and low-cost, and hotels in the Asia-Pacific region.

Sabre is the second-largest GDS and has an API set similar to Amadeus’ without offering insurance and airport transfers. Sabre APIs use SOAP/REST messaging formats. The APIs enable data retrieval and booking. They cover:

  • Flight schedules and availability
  • Fares
  • Queue activity
  • PRN records
  • Itineraries
  • Mileage count
  • Transactions
  • Flight details
  • Ancillary booking
  • Low-fare history
  • Low-fare forecast (available in a beta version)
  • Passenger details
  • Seat map

Travelport API

Travelport is an international platform that unites three GDSs: Galileo, Apollo, and Worldspan. As Amadeus and Sabre, it provides the data on flights, trains, hotel, cruises, and car rental. Worldspan also distributes travel information and tour packages.

Since 2012 Travelport has cooperated with AXESS International Network, a leading Japanese GDS network, created and owned by Japanese Airlines (JAL), which uses Travelport API for flight distribution. Recently the companies announced the launch of a new joint venture company that’s expected to be formed by June 1, 2019.

Travelport Universal API is a single that provides access to all its GDS. This API uses XML messaging format. It books flights from American, European, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern airlines. The Travelport Universal API booking functionality of covers:

  • Flights (branded fares and schedules)
  • Connected routes (air and rail)
  • Ancillary services booking

Travelport charges an annual fee for Universal API use.

Mystifly API

Mystifly is an Asian GDS with data aggregated from over 750 airlines, including over 200 low-cost carriers. It operates in 80 countries across Asia, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, and North and South America.

Mystifly offers MyFareBox OnePointAPI integration that connects to several GDSs and distributes flight data in XML messaging format. Mystify is known for the low cost carries data and it will cover the following functionality.

  • Fares (ATPCO, IATA, LCC Carriers, Web, and private fares)
  • Fares variation (student, labour, military, and marine fares)
  • Ancillary booking (baggage and meals)
  • Low-cost carrier fares

Sirena-Travel API

Sirena is a Russian GDS that connect to over 50 international and Russian airlines. And also to the local reservation systems Sirena-2000, Sirena-2.3, and international SITA Gabriel, Sabre, and Amadeus. Sirena aggregates the data on schedules, flight availability, and fares. Apart from the flight reservation, Sirena offers leisure booking, like tickets to sports events or concerts, railway tickets. Its API provides the capability to:

  • Search for one-way & two-way flights
  • Search for flights by city or airport
  • Search by departure time, airline, class, for direct and multi-city flights
  • Filter search results by price, air carrier, flight duration, number of changes
  • Air ticket orders by ticket number, passenger name, the air carrier
  • Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) cards

TravelSky API

TravelSky is a Chinese GDS that is connected to 137 regional and international airlines through SITA networks. It provides the data to support commercial airlines (schedules and fares) and Airport Passenger Processing (APP) services. The API provides the capability to:

  • Flight schedules
  • Flight availability
  • Fares
  • Passenger list
  • Airport information

Tech service provider APIs for flight booking

The tech service providers charge for each API request and technical support. Many travel tech providers have solutions with specific and unique flight data not found in common GDSs. Let’s have a glance at the most popular API’s.

ATPCO API

ATPCO is one of the best airline technology providers and the central distributor of fare data. Its Routehappy API integrated with Amadeus, Sabre and Travelsky GDSs and 8 airlines. The JSON format API covers:

  • Fares
  • Boarding priority
  • Leg searches
  • Ancillary booking (baggage, meals, entertainment)
  • Flight amenities (layout, entertainment, Wi-Fi, food, and beverages)
  • Seat width and legroom
  • Universal Product Attributes: aircraft photos, videos, virtual tours

Orysis Infotech Flight GDS and XML API Integration Service

Orysis Infotech connects several hundred airlines with travel agencies and travel managers as a solution for travel agents, tour operators, and travel management companies. Their Flight GDS and XML API Integration Service provides a connection to data from Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport. The Airline API uses SOAP/XML messaging format and features the following:

  • Access to the list of GDS flights
  • Ability to see the trip details (flight name and number, arrival and departure date, number of stops if the flight is not direct)
  • Use filter search
  • Select seats
  • See fare details (fees, taxes, rates)
  • Access baggage information
  • Check PNR status

eTravos Flight booking API

eTravos is India’s largest cloud Travel Technology Platform that works with clients from India, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. eTravos offering two types of APIs: flight booking and GDS connection.

Flight booking API provides a connection to 11 NDC adopters, over 750 airlines, including full-service carriers (FSC) and 225 low-cost carriers. The API’s features are:

  • Multi-destination bookings
  • Fare calendar
  • Personalized and anonymous fare information (private, public, and corporate)
  • Family booking
  • Booking cancellation
  • Ancillary services booking (baggage and meal preference)

Also, eTravos offers separate GDS API integration. These APIs serve to connect with Amadeus, Sabre, and Travelport. The solution integrates with web and mobile apps, Desktop Agency application integration, and an online-booking tool – Flight Booking Engine (FBE) with corporate booking support.

The HitchHiker Flight API

The HitchHiker Flight API is a SaaS-solution with Web Service interface that integrates with user’s software and sales system. HitchHiker Flight API is connected to Amadeus, Galileo, Sabre, Sirena, Worldspan, and has a direct connection to 120 airlines, including low-cost carriers. This API covers:

  • Flight booking and cancellation
  • Payments, booking validation and refund
  • Group bookings
  • 18 fare types (student, labour, military, etc.)
  • Ancillary services

The API doesn’t cover scheduling information. The solution can be customized according to the client’s needs with customer support.

Cleartrip Flight API

Cleartrip APIs that allows the customers to search and book airline tickets. Both APIs works on a REST-based interface and communicates using XML. HTTP GET command is used to make flight searches. All Bookings are done by creating an itinerary which contains all the details about flights, pricing, passenger contact, and payment details.

Wego Flights API

Wego Flights API allows clients to search for flight fares and availability in real-time across Wego’s inventory of partners Wego provide developers with APIs that allow the developing app to search flights and book them as well. A search request is made through HTTP POST format and one will get the response in JSON format.

FlightStats

Flightstats Flex APIs provides a developer with complete coverage of flight status information. One can use these APIs with REST, supporting JSON, JSONP, XML formats, and SOAP. The Flex APIs lets a developer develop apps listing schedule, Airport status, delays, alerts, weather forecast, and details about a particular airline. FlightStats gives 30 days free trial for so that developers can use and evaluate them against their application features.

FlightAware

FlightAware is an XML based flight APIs that supports a developer to create apps displaying live and historical data about flight status, route, weather conditions, airport statuses and much more. A developer can use SOAP/WSDL or REST/JSON to write queries using FlightXMl APIs. It allows one to write apps using .NET, PHP, Java, Ruby, Perl, and many others. One can use these APIs to send push notifications as well.

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