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Enabler of an Airline Industry Open Data Ecosystem

As the Airline Industry accelerates the transition away from costly legacy systems and processes towards an open technology environment, it is crucial that an Open Ecosystem built on modern API communication standards is in place. 

In 2021, the Digital Transformation Advisory Council (DTAC), one of the Advisory Councils advising the IATA Board of Governors, set a strategy to achieve an Open Data Ecosystem through the adoption of Open APIs, open standards, and open architecture.

 

IATA’s Open API Program serves as an enabler for achieving such an Open Ecosystem. The program focuses on the following key objectives:

  • Promote discoverability and connectivity of digital capabilities. such as API and Data, from trustworthy industry parties.
  •  Promote adoption and collaboration on the industry API standards and best practices. 

Tools

  • The Open API Hub is an enabler to support the move towards an Open Data Ecosystem, by providing discoverability and collaboration features. 
  • The IATA developer portal is the single place for industry developers to explore different industry technology standards programs, and access resources, such as standards and best practice documents, implementation guides, supporting and collaboration tools, etc.

Standards

  • IATA has formed the Open API working group to develop industry Open API standards and best practices, including REST API, GraphQL API, AsyncAPI, etc. The group has developed the first industry REST API Standards, which have been adopted by the industry.

Adoption

  • IATA offers the Open Air certification to recognize the providers who follow industry REST API standards in API design and development.

Open API Hub

IATA’s Open API Hub is a repository for any Airline Industry organization to discover and collaborate with APIs from other trusted industry providers. The Open API Hub allows you to connect to APIs to quickly build partnerships, promote competition and to efficiently bring new products to the market.

Benefits for the Industry

The Hub is your one-stop place to discover and connect with any airline industry API providers. API providers can use the hub to promote awareness of their APIs, and partner with trustworthy industry API consumers.

 

API Providers
  • Discover new partners
    Providers can publish their APIs in the hub, make the APIs visible to the general public, and allow trusted potential industry partners, to connect to their APIs.
    The discoverability and connectivity of a particular API remains under the full control of each API provider.
  •  Partner Communication
    The API Hub is a unified communication channel between existing and potential APIs consumers.
    1. Providers can receive direct communication and feedback from industry developers. Developers can send enquiries to the provider, rate the API, and post questions on the API for discussion.
    2. Providers can communicate directly with API consumers who can choose to subscribe to specific APIs.
  •  Showcase at industry standard or program adoption dashboard
    The API Hub is capable of tracking and monitor the adoption of APIs supporting different IATA industry standards and programs, such as Modern Airline Retailing, ONE Record, Open Air certification, etc.
    If the API specification is built in accordance with a specific IATA standard or program, it can be listed under that program’s page in the hub, to showcase the provider’s capability and commitment towards industry adoption and contribution of the standard or program.
API Consumers 
  • Discover APIs
    In the hub, API Consumers can easily discover the APIs they are interested to connecting to from trustworthy industry parties. Consumers can filter APIs by name, description, provider, and technology through the user interface or the platform API.
  • Onboarding APIs
    With the consent of providers, developers can subscribe to the API in the hub as consumers. It simplifies the onboarding process and reduces the time for developers to starting evaluation of the API.

If you have any further questions do not hesitate to get in touch with us.