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Overview

The SITA FlightFollower API is a REST based service which provides map images of flights as they progress on their routes.

Flight information can be searched by departure airport, arrival airport, airline and flight number. Images are returned in GIF format.

FLIGHTFOLLOWER

 

Technical Documentation

1 Revision History

 

Date Version Description

04 October 2018

1.0

Initial Version

01 August 2023

1.1

Added rate limit and OAuth

2 Introduction

The SITA Flight Follower API is a REST based service which provides positional information of an existing flight.

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/flightfollower/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 OAuth token.

  • Certain response payload elements will be filtered based on permissions associated with their token.

2.3 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 UTC timestamp at which the current rate limit window resets

3 SITA Flight Follower Service API

Flight Follower API has only one resource endpoint to be accessed. Its return content will depend on parameters sent on request. See below for more information

3.1 Get Flight Information

Path parameters

Table 1. /v1/{departure}/{arrival}/{airline}/{flightNumber}
Parameter Description

departure

Valid IATA/ICAO departure Airport Code

arrival

Valid IATA/ICAO arrival Airport Code

airline

Valid Airline IATA/ICAO Code

flightNumber

Valid flight number

Request headers

Name Description

Content-Type

The Content-Type of this request.

Authorization

Authorization header that contains the access token.

Curl request

$ curl 'https://www.example.com:12345/v1/GVA/LON/BA/1234?imgWidth=160&imgLength=160&imgType=gif&base64=true&rfc237=true' -i -X GET \
    -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
    -H 'Authorization: Bearer eyJkb2N1bWVudGF0aW9uIiwidG9rZW4ifQ...'

HTTP response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Length: 2982

data:image/gif;base64,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