If you are a frequent flyer, chances are you might be aware of IATA and ICAO codes, which can be seen everywhere, from tickets to luggage tags to boarding passes.
In the Aviation industry, these codes are an integral part of the system and are widely used. They provide a quick and more straightforward way to reference an Airport or an Airline. For instance, rather than spelling out “American Eagle Airlines” on the boarding passes, it’s the IATA standard that the code “AA” represents the flight.
Similarly, a pilot’s flight plan and radio communication to ATC (Air Traffic Controller) comprise ICAO code, “AAL” for American Eagle Airlines. It’s because of these codes that communication in the aviation industry has become much faster and smoother.
IATA Airline Codes (Two Letter)
The Two-Digit IATA Codes are the unique codes that are used to identify an Airline. These codes are defined by International Air Transport Association (IATA), and they are used for commercial purposes such as airline ticketing, baggage tags, and boarding passes.
ICAO Code (Three-Letter)
The Three-Digit Code for An Airline is governed by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization). These codes are used for official purposes – such as with ATC, flight plans. They are mainly issued for airports where no commercial airlines fly.
There are hundreds of software applications that have been built around these codes. They employ both ICAO and IATA standards for a variety of purposes. For example, if you are developing an application for the aviation industry, you need to have access to all registered airlines. There are plenty of websites where you can find information about the Airlines and their IATA and ICAO codes. However, they might not fit well unless you want to go through the hassle of scraping through dozens of pages to build a reliable database for your travel website or application.
Luckily, with IATA and ICAO Codes API, you can get information about all the registered airlines and search for any airline using its IATA code.
What is IATA and ICAO API?
IATA and ICAO API is a simple and easy-to-use Restful API that allows users to get information about any airline, such as its Name, IATA, and ICAO codes. It also provides a list of 750+ registered airlines across the world.
How does It Work?
IATA and ICAO API currently provides two simple endpoints that can be executed over HTTP using the language and platform of your choice. The Client request to fetch the list of all registered airlines. The API Server responds with the complete list in a JSON format, as illustrated in the below diagram:
Users
IATA and ICAO codes are a major part of any business related to the aviation and travel industry. Below are some examples where IATA and ICAO Codes API can play a vital role.
Flight Booking Websites
Developers aiming to build online air tickets and flight deals websites require communicating with various airline systems using the language they understand – IATA and ICAO codes. That’s where IATA and ICAO API shines and can act as an intermediate layer to allow the application to integrate with other systems seamlessly.
Flight Tracker Applications:
Live Flight Tracker applications (such as FlightRadar24) show live air traffic worldwide by combining data from several data sources. They also use IATA and ICAO codes to display information about the Airlines and their destination. Using IATA and ICAO Codes API in those cases is simply a no-brainer.
Airline Databases:
IATA and ICAO Codes API provides a comprehensive list of over 750+ registered airlines from all over the world. In addition, it allows developers to build a reliable database that can be used for a variety of purposes, from simple searching to complex pattern-based filtering.
Mobile Games and Applications:
IATA and ICAO Codes API can also be used to build quiz-based games and offline apps. Some of the examples are Airport Codes Quiz and Airport Code Finder apps.
How to Connect to IATA and ICAO Codes API Tutorial – Step by Step
Connecting to IATA and ICAO Codes API is a three-step process:
Step1: Signup for an Account on RapidAPI
First, you need to create an account on RapidAPI (where you can find and connect to thousands of APIs using One SDK and one API Key).
Step2: Search the API Marketplace
After successful registration, you will be redirected to the dashboard. Navigate to “API Marketplace” and search for “IATA and ICAO Codes API” (as shown in the below image):
Select the API by clicking on the “IATA and ICAO Codes.” You will be redirected to the API Home Page.
Step 3: Test the API
The last step is to test the API. To do this, you need to navigate to the ‘Endpoints’ tab, where all available endpoints will be listed. You can test any endpoint and select the code snippet of your favorite programming language.
Note: One of the key benefits of using RapidAPI is its API Console, which provides an easy and interactive way to execute the API Endpoints without leaving the browser (required parameters such as API Key will be generated automatically).
In the below example, we executed the endpoint ‘Airline’ using the IATA code ‘AA’. As a result, the API server returned the 200 OK response, which contains the JSON Formatted details about the airline.
Note: In case of any failure, the IATA and ICAO Codes API may return one of the following responses:
- 400 Bad Request – Client sent an invalid request (missing required parameters).
- 401 Unauthorized – Failed to authenticate with the API server.
- 403 Forbidden – The client authenticated but didn’t have permission to access the required resource.
- 404 Not Found – The requested resource (endpoint) doesn’t exist.
- 500 Internal Server Error – A generic error occurred on the API server.
- 503 Service Unavailable – The API service is not available.
If the provided IATA code is not found, the API returns an empty JSON response.
Explanation of IATA and ICAO Codes API Endpoints
Currently, IATA and ICAO Codes API provides two endpoints for airlines.
1.Airline
This endpoint allows users to fetch details about any airline using its IATA code. Let’s execute this endpoint by providing British Airways IATA code, ‘ BA’, to see if it fetches the information correctly.
We can see from the results; the API successfully returns the information about British Airways, including its ICAO code, title, and it’s official website. This endpoint also contains a boolean flag called ‘low_cost_carrier” which can indicate if the given airline falls into the low-cost carrier category. This option can be super helpful as it allows the users to drill down the result set one level further.
2. Airlines
This endpoint can be used to fetch all registered airlines. It doesn’t require any parameter and can be invoked using the GET method over HTTPS. The API returns the JSON Formatted Array containing the list of all registered airlines.
Please note that this doesn’t contain the website field, which is only available in the airline endpoint. Therefore, if you need to fetch all registered airlines’ official websites, you need to execute the airline API by providing the IATA code.
How to Use IATA and ICAO Codes API with Python
Please make sure that you have installed the Python application. There are several client libraries available for python like http.client, Unirest and the default http.client.
The below example uses the ‘Airlines’ endpoint using http.client library to fetch all available airlines.
import http.client
conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection("iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com")
headers = {
'x-rapidapi-key': "ce19d0164fmsh3d383efc0e85ce5p16dcb1jsnb1a4a3c79541",
'x-rapidapi-host': "iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com"
}
conn.request("GET", "/airlines", headers=headers)
res = conn.getresponse()
data = res.read()
print(data.decode("utf-8"))
How to Use IATA and ICAO Codes API with PHP
Before running the sample code shared below, please make sure that you have installed PHP. Then, you may follow this guide on how to install this correctly.
The sample code also executes the Airlines endpoint using the cURL library:
<?php
$curl = curl_init();
curl_setopt_array($curl, [
CURLOPT_URL => "https://iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com/airlines",
CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER => true,
CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION => true,
CURLOPT_ENCODING => "",
CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS => 10,
CURLOPT_TIMEOUT => 30,
CURLOPT_HTTP_VERSION => CURL_HTTP_VERSION_1_1,
CURLOPT_CUSTOMREQUEST => "GET",
CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER => [
"x-rapidapi-host: iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com",
"x-rapidapi-key: ce19d0164fmsh3d383efc0e85ce5p16dcb1jsnb1a4a3c79541"
],
]);
$response = curl_exec($curl);
$err = curl_error($curl);
curl_close($curl);
if ($err) {
echo "cURL Error #:" . $err;
} else {
echo $response;
}
How to Use IATA and ICAO Codes API with Ruby
The below code-snippet uses net::http library to execute the Airlines endpoint.
require 'uri'
require 'net/http'
require 'openssl'
url = URI("https://iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com/airlines")
http = Net::HTTP.new(url.host, url.port)
http.use_ssl = true
http.verify_mode = OpenSSL::SSL::VERIFY_NONE
request = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url)
request["x-rapidapi-key"] = 'ce19d0164fmsh3d383efc0e85ce5p16dcb1jsnb1a4a3c79541'
request["x-rapidapi-host"] = 'iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com'
response = http.request(request)
puts response.read_body
How to Use IATA and ICAO Codes API with Javascript
To use the API in JavaScript, you need first to set up the JavaScript environment. Then, you can download text editors such as Atoms, Visual Studio Code, NotePad++, etc.
The following code snippet executes the Airlines endpoint using the fetch method to retrieve the list of all registered airlines.
fetch("https://iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com/airlines", {
"method": "GET",
"headers": {
"x-rapidapi-key": "ce19d0164fmsh3d383efc0e85ce5p16dcb1jsnb1a4a3c79541",
"x-rapidapi-host": "iata-and-icao-codes.p.rapidapi.com"
}
})
.then(response => {
console.log(response);
})
.catch(err => {
console.error(err);
});
Benefits
Speed:
IATA and ICAO Codes API has a latency of 170ms only. Therefore, it delivers a lightning-fast experience for high performant applications such as Flight Tracking – where every millisecond counts.
Extensive Database
IATA and ICAO Codes API provides aviation data for over 750+ airlines – This makes the API ideal for data-centric applications, like Aviation Traffic Analyzer and Airlines Directory Websites.
Seamless Integration:
The API is super easy to integrate as it follows the REST API standards. As a result, the Endpoints don’t require any hassle and can be executed quickly in various languages and platforms.
Alternatives to IATA and ICAO Codes API
Following are the similar APIs available on RapidAPI if you are looking for alternatives:
- Aviation Reference Data API: This API allows querying airports, airlines, and aircraft types by IATA and ICAO codes. This API is also free and has separate endpoints for Airports, Airlines, Countries, etc.
- IATA and ICAO by Leopieters: It’s another powerful API that provides all aviation data. Like Flight Track, Airport Schedules, Flight Routes, Airlines etc.
- Travel Hacking Tool API: This is a freemium API and provides a set of endpoints to query for IATA and ICAO airports, airlines, and countries.
- Airport Guide – Avidation Info API: This API provides complete airport details by ICAO, IATA, and Local IDs. Their database contains over 50k+ airports and provides extensive airline routes, nearby airports, aviation calculators, etc.
Summary
This article explored IATA and ICAO Codes API in detail and explained how the API could be integrated using various languages such as Python, PHP, Ruby, and JavaScript.
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