Apidays Paris 2023 - Software and APIs for Smart, Sustainable and Sovereign Societies December 6, 7 & 8, 2023 How OpenAPI Supports Airline Industry Standards and Beyond Yan (Peter) Sun, Open Data Ecosystem Senior Manager, International Air Transport Association (IATA) ------ Check out our conferences at https://www.apidays.global/ Do you want to sponsor or talk at one of our conferences? https://apidays.typeform.com/to/ILJeAaV8 Learn more on APIscene, the global media made by the community for the community: https://www.apiscene.io Explore the API ecosystem with the API Landscape: https://apilandscape.apiscene.io/

1. How OpenAPI supports
airline industry
standards and beyond
Yan (Peter) Sun (suny@iata.org)
Senior Manager, Open Data Ecosystem

2. What is IATA?
The International Air Transport
Association (IATA) is the trade
association for the world’s airlines.
Core roles:
• Advocacy
• Standards setting activities
• Aviation products and services
300+
Member
Airlines
83%
World Air
Traffic
120
Countries
2

3. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50 47
39
7
21
10 11
13
16
11
9
11
Airlines plan to provide
Open APIs
APIs along the Pax
Journey
*Source: IATA Survey 2019 October
Open means the API is publicly discoverable by
consumers
1. “Open” does NOT mean “Free”
2. Provider has full control over who can access
what info

4. Standards
Industry WG
REST API best
practices
Open Air
Certification
Promote APIs
compliant with
standards
Service
Open API Hub
Dev Portal
IATA Open API
Vision
Digital enabler program to facilitate
the airline industry to achieve an
Open Data Ecosystem through the
development of industry standards
and services using open technology
standards under industry
governance
IATA Open API Hub
intro video

5. Design
First
Follow best
practices in API
Spec
OpenAPI
Based on OAS
3.0
AIDM
Airline Industry
Data Model
REST API standards and BPs
Open API Working Group
IATA Open API Hub
Design style linter ruleset
JSON schema library

6. Benefits
• Standards in recent technologies
• Agility in a standard-development with
collaboration
• Interoperability - design best practices in
addition to data model
• Promote API discoverability and showcase
industry adoption
AIDM
Data model
2. Promote
standard API
Industry provider
3. Discover
Provider API
platform
Implement
UC1: Industry Standard API
OpenAPI supports the airline industry standard
IATA API design
workspace
1. collaborate
Technical
group
Business
Group
Industry WGs

7. Provider API platform**
API Design
Tool
API Model
Design Library
Lifecycle Mgnt
Design style
linter ruleset
2. Apply Open
Air certification
Benefits
• Maximize the value of Open API best practices and AIDM
models (Taxonomy, Terminology, etc), which are used
beyond the industry standard
• Enable discoverability of any trusted industry API in any
technology; Further promote APIs following best
practices
• Certification in levels to facilitate adoption
UC2 : Industry Open API
Consistency in any airline industry API design beyond standard
1. Publish API
Aggregator
Airport
Other
Airline
IT
Provider
Airline & Travel
industry
AIDM
IATA JSON
Schema Library
**: dashed blocks mean IATA standard supporting tools are available

8. Discover
Promote and
discover API;
Connect with
partners
Contribute
Join the Open API
WG on standard
setting activities**
Quality
Follow industry
API standards and
achieve
certification
8
Need more info?
➢ IATA Open API (link)
➢ Open API working group (link)
➢ Open API Hub (link)
➢ hub onboarding (link)
➢ Contact openapi@iata.org
Participate in IATA Open API program!
**: as the IATA member airline or strategic partner

9. 9
QUESTIONS ?

10. Challenge: connect API providers and consumers
Where to find APIs? Can I Try?
Can I Trust?
How can I get
onboard?
How developers
discover my APIs?
How they like
my APIs?
Who consumes
my API?
How to follow
industry
standards?
Developer @ Start-Up
Airline API manager
10

11. User journey
UC1: Discover APIs
• Browse APIs by category
& program
• Search APIs
UC2: View API details
Public user
API Provider
API Consumer
UC3: Contact Provider
UC4: Try an API (if the provider allows)
UC5: Feedback
• Rate API
• Discussion
UC6: Publish my API (public or private)
UC7: Interact with Consumers
UC8: Certify my API to showcase
commitment to quality
API professionals
Obtain access
to login
Onboard
organization

12. Open API Hub - objective
The airline industry’s one-stop API portal
• All industry parties
• APIs from all business domains, using any technology
• Fully controlled API visibility and access -public, partner, and private APIs
• Showcase industry digital standards and programs
Discover APIs
Build new trusted
partnerships and
foster competition
Promote traffic to your
APIs
Connect without
compromising Control
of your data

13. 3200+
Organizations
onboarded
50+
Open APIs
100+
APIs listed
API hub adoption (Nov 2023)
12
8
4
9 9
2 2
Customer
Experience
Retailing Cargo Flight Groud
Operations
Reference
Data
Financial
processes
Environmental
Sustainability
Open APIs
13
4
8
6
4
Customer
Experience
Retailing Cargo Flight Ground
Operations
Reference Data
Airline APIs