Flight Duration Overview

Overview

Flight duration Service provides a simple API that allows users to determine the average flight duration in minutes. This average time is based on historical flight data collected by the SITA Flight Information system over the past number of years. Note that new routes we receive (routes that don’t have previous duration data available), will return a duration based on estimated distance and speed. These are an estimation and may not reflect true duration values

This API answers the below questions”

What was the total time of the flight?

See our 'Try it Now' page for more details.

Flight Duration API

1 Revision History

Date	Version	Description
`2 February 2021`	`1.0`	`Initial version`
`12 October 2021`	`1.1`	`Split by airline, min, max and percentile breakdown options added`
`26 October 2022`	`1.2`	`Reformatting documentation and general tidy up`
`08 August 2023`	`1.3`	`Added rate limit and OAuth`
`11 March 2024`	`1.4`	`Added estimated field to response`

SITA Flight Duration API is a REST based service which provides information about flight durations around the world.

To access the APIs you will need an API key. These can be obtained by creating an account on https://www.developer.aero/ and registering your interest for access to the API.

2.1 Authentication

To access the APIs an OAuth access token must be supplied. To obtain an OAuth token a request must be sent to the https://sitaopen.api.aero/duration/oauth/token endpoint using the OAuth2 Client Credential flow, using your API key as the client_id, and your consumer secret as the client_secret.

Once an access token has been obtained, it can be placed in the Authorization HTTP header as a bearer token, for example:

Authorization: Bearer eyJ92dNw9dka...

2.2 Security

All incoming requests will be REST over HTTPS.
Users are authenticated using their API key.
Certain response payload elements will be filtered based on permissions associated with their token.

2.3 Flight Duration API Structure

The scheme, domain and high level path parameters portion of the URL is:

https://host:port/duration/{version}

Where duration is the functional domain. The current version is v2.

Function	Method	Description
`/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}`	`GET`	`Returns the average flight duration between two airports in minutes.`
`/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}/{airlineCode}`	`GET`	`Returns the average flight duration between two airports operated by airline in minutes.`

2.4 Rate Limiting

All incoming requests are subject to a rate limiting restriction. The following headers are included in HTTP responses:

Header	Description
`X-RateLimit-Limit`	The total number of requests allowed in the current time window
`X-RateLimit-Remaining`	The number of requests left for the current time window
`X-RateLimit-Policy`	The policy describing how many request per time window are allowed
`X-RateLimit-Reset`	The number of seconds remaining in the current time window. Header not displayed after rate limit has been exceeded
`retry-after`	The epoch timestamp at which the current rate limit window resets. Header only displayed after rate limit has been exceeded

3 SITA Flight Duration API

Flight Duration API provides duration statistics for flights between two airports based on data collected from the SITA Flight Information system.

The metrics available include average duration, min duration, max duration, and percentile breakdown. Each of these can be displayed as an aggregate figure (e.g. average duration for all airlines) or split out per airline.

3.1 Resources

This section describes Flight Duration API with regards to:

Detailed API structure
Example requests and responses
JSON schema for request (where appropriate) and responses
Error response codes and formats

3.1.1 GET Duration stats by Airports for all Airlines

Path parameters

Table 1. /{version}/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}
Parameter	Description
`version`	The version of this API.
`originAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO origin airport code
`destinationAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO destination airport code

Request headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	Content type of this request. Required value is 'application/json'
`Authorization`	Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/JFK/MIA' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 132
{
   "originAirport":"JFK",
   "destinationAirport":"MIA",
   "stats":[
      {
         "airline":"*",
         "average":189,
         "estimated":false
      }
   ]
}

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`destinationAirport`	`String`	Destination Airport
`originAirport`	`String`	Origin Airport
`stats[]`	`Object`	Duration stats (average, min, max, percentile breakdown)
`stats[].airline`	`String`	Airline
`stats[].average`	`String`	Average duration
`stats[].estimated`	`Boolean`	Distinguishes durations returned using actual data, or distance between airports

3.1.2 GET Duration stats by Airports with Min, Max and Percentiles

Path parameters

Table 1. /{version}/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}
Parameter	Description
`version`	The version of this API.
`originAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO origin airport code
`destinationAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO destination airport code

Query parameters

Parameter	Description
`showMinMax`	Boolean value - Use this to have the min and max durations in the response
`showPercentiles`	Boolean value - Use this to have the duration percentiles returned

Request headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	Content type of this request. Required value is 'application/json'
`Authorization`	Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/JFK/MIA?showMinMax=true&showPercentiles=true' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 330
{
   "originAirport":"JFK",
   "destinationAirport":"MIA",
   "stats":[
      {
         "airline":null,
         "average":189,
         "min":174,
         "max":204,
         "percentiles":{
            "1":174,
            "5":174,
            "25":185,
            "50":190,
            "75":192,
            "95":203,
            "99":204
         },
         "estimated":false
      }
   ]
}

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`destinationAirport`	`String`	Destination Airport
`originAirport`	`String`	Origin Airport
`stats[]`	`Object`	Duration stats (average, min, max, percentile breakdown)
`stats[].airline`	`String`	Airline
`stats[].average`	`String`	Average duration
`stats[].max`	`String`	Max duration
`stats[].min`	`String`	Min duration
`stats[].percentiles.1`	`String`	1st percentile
`stats[].percentiles.25`	`String`	25th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.5`	`String`	5th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.50`	`String`	50th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.75`	`String`	75th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.95`	`String`	95th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.99`	`String`	99th percentile
`stats[].percentiles[]`	`Object`	Duration percentiles breakdown
`stats[].estimated`	`Boolean`	Distinguishes durations returned using actual data, or distance between airports

3.1.3 GET Duration stats by Airports and split by Airline

Path parameters

Table 1. /{version}/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}
Parameter	Description
`version`	The version of this API.
`originAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO origin airport code
`destinationAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO destination airport code

Query parameters

Parameter	Description
`split`	Used to specify how the duration stats should be split. Currently only 'airline' is supported

Request headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	Content type of this request. Required value is 'application/json'
`Authorization`	Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/JFK/MIA?split=airline' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 185
{
   "originAirport":"JFK",
   "destinationAirport":"MIA",
   "stats":[
      {
         "airline":"AA",
         "average":189,
         "estimated":false
      },
      {
         "airline":"DL",
         "average":189,
         "estimated":false
      }
   ]
}

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`destinationAirport`	`String`	Destination Airport
`originAirport`	`String`	Origin Airport
`stats[]`	`Object`	Duration stats (average, min, max, percentile breakdown)
`stats[].airline`	`String`	Airline
`stats[].average`	`String`	Average duration
`stats[].estimated`	`Boolean`	Distinguishes durations returned using actual data, or distance between airports

3.1.4 GET Duration stats by Airports and split by Airline and show Min, Max

Path parameters

Table 1. /{version}/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}
Parameter	Description
`version`	The version of this API.
`originAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO origin airport code
`destinationAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO destination airport code

Query parameters

Parameter	Description
`split`	Used to specify how the duration stats should be split. Currently only 'airline' is supported
`showMinMax`	Boolean value - Use this to have the min and max durations in the response

Request headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	Content type of this request. Required value is 'application/json'
`Authorization`	Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/JFK/MIA?split=airline&showMinMax=true' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 257
{
   "originAirport":"JFK",
   "destinationAirport":"MIA",
   "stats":[
      {
         "airline":"AA",
         "average":189,
         "min":174,
         "max":204,
         "estimated":false
      },
      {
         "airline":"DL",
         "average":189,
         "min":174,
         "max":204,
         "estimated":false
      }
   ]
}

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`destinationAirport`	`String`	Destination Airport
`originAirport`	`String`	Origin Airport
`stats[]`	`Object`	Duration stats (average, min, max, percentile breakdown)
`stats[].airline`	`String`	Airline
`stats[].average`	`String`	Average duration
`stats[].max`	`String`	Max duration
`stats[].min`	`String`	Min duration
`stats[].estimated`	`Boolean`	Distinguishes durations returned using actual data, or distance between airports

3.1.5 GET Duration stats by Airports and split by Airline and show Min, Max and Percentiles

Path parameters

Table 1. /{version}/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}
Parameter	Description
`version`	The version of this API.
`originAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO origin airport code
`destinationAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO destination airport code

Query parameters

Parameter	Description
`split`	Used to specify how the duration stats should be split. Currently only 'airline' is supported
`showMinMax`	Boolean value - Use this to have the min and max durations in the response
`showPercentiles`	Boolean value - Use this to have the duration percentiles returned

Request headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	Content type of this request. Required value is 'application/json'
`Authorization`	Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/JFK/MIA?split=airline&showMinMax=true&showPercentiles=true' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 579
{
   "originAirport":"JFK",
   "destinationAirport":"MIA",
   "stats":[
      {
         "airline":"AA",
         "average":189,
         "min":174,
         "max":204,
         "percentiles":{
            "1":174,
            "5":174,
            "25":185,
            "50":190,
            "75":192,
            "95":203,
            "99":204
         },
         "estimated":false
      },
      {
         "airline":"DL",
         "average":189,
         "min":174,
         "max":204,
         "percentiles":{
            "1":177,
            "5":177,
            "25":181,
            "50":189,
            "75":198,
            "95":200,
            "99":200
         },
         "estimated":false
      }
   ]
}

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`destinationAirport`	`String`	Destination Airport
`originAirport`	`String`	Origin Airport
`stats[]`	`Object`	Duration stats (average, min, max, percentile breakdown)
`stats[].airline`	`String`	Airline
`stats[].average`	`String`	Average duration
`stats[].max`	`String`	Max duration
`stats[].min`	`String`	Min duration
`stats[].percentiles.1`	`String`	1st percentile
`stats[].percentiles.25`	`String`	25th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.5`	`String`	5th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.50`	`String`	50th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.75`	`String`	75th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.95`	`String`	95th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.99`	`String`	99th percentile
`stats[].percentiles[]`	`Object`	Duration percentiles breakdown
`stats[].estimated`	`Boolean`	Distinguishes durations returned using actual data, or distance between airports

3.1.6 GET Duration stats by Airports for a specific Airline and show Min, Max and Percentiles

Path parameters

Table 1. /{version}/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}/{airlineCode}
Parameter	Description
`version`	The version of this API.
`originAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO origin airport code
`destinationAirport`	3-character IATA or 4-character ICAO destination airport code
`airlineCode`	2-character IATA or 3-character ICAO airline code

Query parameters

Parameter	Description
`showMinMax`	Boolean value - Use this to have the min and max durations in the response
`showPercentiles`	Boolean value - Use this to have the duration percentiles returned

Request headers

Name	Description
`Content-Type`	Content type of this request. Required value is 'application/json'
`Authorization`	Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/JFK/MIA/AA?showMinMax=true&showPercentiles=true' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

"HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type":"application/js                                                                                                         
Content-Length":330
{
   "originAirport":"JFK",
   "destinationAirport":"MIA",
   "stats":[
      {
         "airline":"AA",
         "average":189,
         "min":174,
         "max":204,
         "percentiles":{
            "1":174,
            "5":174,
            "25":185,
            "50":190,
            "75":192,
            "95":203,
            "99":204
         },
         "estimated":false
      }
   ]
}

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`destinationAirport`	`String`	Destination Airport
`originAirport`	`String`	Origin Airport
`stats[]`	`Object`	Duration stats (average, min, max, percentile breakdown)
`stats[].airline`	`String`	Airline
`stats[].average`	`String`	Average duration
`stats[].max`	`String`	Max duration
`stats[].min`	`String`	Min duration
`stats[].percentiles.1`	`String`	1st percentile
`stats[].percentiles.25`	`String`	25th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.5`	`String`	5th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.50`	`String`	50th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.75`	`String`	75th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.95`	`String`	95th percentile
`stats[].percentiles.99`	`String`	99th percentile
`stats[].percentiles[]`	`Object`	Duration percentiles breakdown
`stats[].estimated`	`Boolean`	Distinguishes durations returned using actual data, or distance between airports

4 Error Response

Response fields

Path	Type	Description
`errors`	`Object`	Object that holds the error information
`errors.error[]`	`Array`	Array of errors
`errors.error[].code`	`Number`	Duration API Internal Error Code
`errors.error[].description`	`String`	Error Description
`errors.error[].invalidParam`	`String`	Indicates the invalid query parameter

Curl request

$ curl 'https://sitaopen-qa.api.aero/duration/v2/AMS/INVALID_AIRPORT_CODE' -i -X GET \
-H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json
Content-Length: 164
{
   "errors":{
      "error":[
         {
            "description":"Airport not found",
            "code":2020,
            "invalidParam":"destinationAirport"
         }
      ]
   }
}

5 Appendix A SITA Flight Duration API Use Cases

Scenario:	As an API user I want to make a request to the Duration API to return flight duration statistics between 2 specified airports
Request:	GET /duration/v2/LHR/DXB
Response:	Returns flight duration statistics between LHR and DXB

Scenario:	As an API user I want to make a request to the Duration API to return flight duration statistics between 2 specified airports with a given airline
Request:	GET /duration/v2/LHR/DXB/AA
Response:	Returns flight duration statistics between LHR and DXB for the airline AA

Overview

Flight Duration API

1 Revision History

2 Registration and API Sign Up

3 SITA Flight Duration API

4 Error Response

5 Appendix A SITA Flight Duration API Use Cases

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