According to the ATO Fact Book, FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) handles over 16 million flights yearly only in the US (45 thousand daily), with 5,400 aircraft in the sky at peak operational times. With these numbers, you can imagine the importance of airline data scraping and managing for a company operating in the travel industry.
But with billions of data generated yearly, only automated big-data scraping, mining, and analytics services and tools can efficiently handle your company’s data sets and flow.
This article will explore the airline data types and web sources categorised by geographical region, from Australia and America to the most populous Asian countries, passing through Europe and Africa.
7 Reasons to Use Flight and Airline Data Scraping
Airline data scraping can extract information about flights, fares, schedules, and other relevant data from various sources. Here are the seven best travel data scraping applications in the airline industry.
1. Flight Schedules and Availability
Web scraping allows you to extract flight schedules, routes, and availability from airline websites, online travel agencies (OTAs), and flight aggregators. This data includes departure and arrival times, flight numbers, aircraft types, layovers, etc.
2. Fare and Pricing Data
Prime monitoring goes beyond retail goods e-commerce. Web scraping is an efficient and affordable way to collect massive data on travel dates, flight routes and cabin class fares. This includes base fares, taxes, fees, and applicable discounts or promotions.
You can track prices on airline websites, OTAs, or flight comparison platforms. With the addition of data mining algorithms and data analytics tools, you can use these airline data to implement or improve your dynamic pricing strategies.
3. Seat Availability and Reservations
Flight and airline data scraping can help you monitor seat availability for specific flights or cabin classes. This information is useful for travellers and travel agents looking to book flights and secure seat reservations.
4. Real-Time Flight Status
By scraping data from flight tracking websites or airline APIs, you can retrieve real-time travel data on flight status, including departure and arrival times, delays, gate changes, and cancellations. This data assists in keeping travellers informed and enables proactive adjustments to travel plans.
In the previous blog, we explained how to benefit from real-time travel data and where to find it with practical examples.
5. Airport Information
Web scraping can also provide details about airport terminals, facilities, services, ground transportation options, and parking availability. How can you exploit this data? One example can be developing and managing a website that helps travellers plan their journeys more effectively.
6. Airline Reviews and Ratings
Extracting customer reviews and ratings from platforms like TripAdvisor or airline review websites allows you to analyse the company reputation and service quality of different airlines. This sentiment analysis can aid travellers in making informed decisions when choosing airlines for their flights.
7. Route Analysis and Market Trends
Do you want to stay ahead of the competition and anticipate market needs so that you are the leader and not the follower?
After scraping flight data from multiple sources, you can use it to identify popular flight routes, analyse route and market trends, and monitor demand changes. This data helps airlines and travel industry professionals make data-driven decisions regarding route planning, capacity management, and pricing strategies.
In summary, flight and airline data scraping provides valuable insights into flight schedules, fares, availability, and market trends, enabling better decision-making for travellers, travel agencies, and other industry professionals. But where to find and collect airline data for your web scraping project of company business management? Let’s see the top airline data sources in each country.
Best Flight and Airline Data Sources Worldwide
There are numerous data sources providing flight and airline data. The best source depends on the specific information you need, as each source provides specialised data types. Keep reading to get a comprehensive view of all international travel data sources in the airline industry.
General Airline Data Sources
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS)
It offers a wide range of statistics related to U.S. air transportation. It includes data on on-time performance, load factors, causes of flight delays, and more.
FlightStats
It provides real-time global flight tracking data, such as departure and arrival times, flight delays and cancellations, and airport conditions. Some of this information requires a subscription.
FlightAware
The website offers real-time flight tracking and historical airline data for private and commercial flights worldwide. Its product AeroAPI provides customised access to millions of flight status inputs (for developers).
OpenFlights
The company provides data on airports, airlines, routes, and aircraft. Data are free to download. You can then use it for analysis or mapping.
Plane Finder
This is another real-time flight tracking and historical flight data provider. The company offers a premium subscription for more detailed information.
Skyscanner API
Skyscanner aggregates data from hundreds of travel sites worldwide. You can automate the flights, hotels, and car hire search.
Flightradar24
On Flight Radar 24, you can monitor airline traffic live. The website offers real-time flight tracking for private/GA flights and from the primary airlines. It also provides airport details, flight status, and weather updates.
IATA (International Air Transport Association)
You can do travel web scraping of IATA data when you need airline codes, country codes, and other international airline data. Some information requires membership or payment.
EUROCONTROL
EUROCONTROL is a pan-European civil-military organisation for air navigation safety. It provides various air transportation data services, including flight planning, air traffic statistics, environmental data, and more.
Are you looking for aviation insights, trends, and data sets? On EUROCONTROL, you can find and download many PDF reports and Excel datasheets full of valuable data.
OAG (Official Airline Guide)
OAG is a cloud-based airline data platform for the global travel industry. It provides digital information and applications for airlines, airports, government agencies, and travel-related service companies worldwide.
Products include flight schedules and status, traveller booking data, flight emissions, airfare data, analytics services, and more. OAG provides data through APIs, alerts or direct access powered by Snowflake.
The Global Economy.com
The website provides economic data on foreign countries for researchers, academics, investors, and businesses. You can find and extract airline passenger annual data series of domestically-owned airlines in a given period. There’s a one-time payment for full access to the data set for a month or year.
European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
The agency produces and provides general aviation public documentation.
CAPA
The CAPA Data Centre provides near-real-time air traffic, financial, performance data, and 1,000 weekly global news within the travel and aviation industry. Only CAPA members have access to this data hub. Premium add-ons also include route maps, a 420,000+ commercial aircraft records fleet database, and more.
International Airline Data Websites
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
Australia
Domestic and international aviation statistics. Data includes airline activity, on-time performance, airfares index, airport traffic, general aviation activities, airfreight, air distances, and aviation air distances.
New Zealand
Aircraft statistics, fees, levies, charges, and registration; Safety reporting, including aviation accidents and incidents (occurrences), investigation reports, and safety messages.
Data and flight information from the busiest airport in New Zealand.
North America
USA
Federal Aviation Administration (U.S. Department of Transportation)
Information and data on air traffic, flights, aircraft, accidents and incidents, airline on-time statistics, airport operations and ranking, etc.
Canada
Open data on civil aviation operating statistics. Data sets are available in English and French, in XML or CSV.
Data and statistics on air transportation occurrences. Data are available in CSV, while statistics are in HTML and PDF.
Up-to-date information from the Aviation Statistics Centre’s surveys. Data includes air carriers, fares, airport and traffic data. Data sets are available in HTML and PDF.
LATIN AMERICA
Latin America includes 21 countries or territories. Let’s see air transport data sources for some of the most populous nations.
Brazil
Global markets economic and alternative data, but also regular and non-regular data of air passenger traffic for domestic and international flights.
Mexico
Open data and statistics on Mexican airport infrastructure and weather information (Radar TDWR).
Argentina
Data on air traffic development in Argentina. The reports include air transport information about airports’ domestic and international passengers, demand, and air operators’ activity and movements (website in Spanish).
Chile
Flight data (national and international departures and arrivals) and Santiago’s airport statistics (passengers, airlines, and destinations).
Colombia
Colombian airlines and air travel data that accessible through charts and tables curated by ODA (El Observatorio de Datos Aeronáuticos). Data includes information about air transport, operational safety, aerodromes, and accident investigation (website in Spanish).
ASIA
UAE
Statistics, reports, studies, and more on air transportation in the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Arabia
Downloadable reports and statistics in Saudi Arabia.
China
Statistical bulletins, reports and performance indicators on Chinese airlines and airports.
India
Aviation data and statistics, accident and incident data, annual reports, and safety-related information about Indian air transportation.
Japan
Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB)
Data and statistics on the number of international and domestic airline passengers, volume of international air cargo, number of registered civil aircraft in Japan, and more.
Indonesia
Data and information on domestic and international airports in Indonesia (website in Indonesian).
Philippines
Historical data of aircraft, passenger, and cargo movements from 2001 to 2022.
Vietnam
Statistics and summary of data on on-time, delayed, and cancelled flights of airlines in Vietnam (Website in Vietnamese).
South Korea
Air traffic statistics with charts and tables. You can download the data sets in Excel, CSV, and TXT format.
EUROPE
There are 44 countries in Europe. To search, extract, and analyse European airline data, you can consider the largest and most populous nations listed below.
United Kingdom
UK aviation data and analysis, including airports, airlines, flight punctuality, passengers, safety and security, airspace and environment, aircraft register statistics, and more.
Russia
Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya)
Statistical data of airlines, airfields and heliports, aviation training centres, maintenance organisations, and air traffic through Russian airports (website in Russian).
Germany
Data and statistics on air accidents in Germany.
France
Data and statistics on flying clubs, aircraft, airports, airline companies, air transport surveys and analyses, air passengers, flight operations, aircrew, and more. (website in French).
Italy
Open data on cancelled aircraft, certified security trainers, certified ATO companies, air transport license owners, certified airports ground handling service providers, air traffic, Italian airports, and wildlife strike statistics (data in Italian).
Spain
Spanish air traffic monthly and annual statistics (airports, airlines, flight routes, and traffic evolution). You can consult tables, charts, and maps online or download PDF and XLS data sets (website in Spanish).
AFRICA
Africa has 54 countries recognised by the United Nations (UN). Let’s see the aviation data sources for the most popular African countries.
South Africa
Aeronautical information and data regarding the entire South African territory.
Nigeria
Aviation data and charts on passenger traffic, international and domestic aviation, aircraft movement, cargo and mail movement.
Kenya
Statistics about passenger traffic, aircraft movements, and cargo and mail traffic (charts and tables).
Morocco
National Airports Office (ONDA)
Airports information in the country (flight information, services, shops, and more).
Algeria
Algerian publication for air navigation, temporary changes to aeronautical information, circulars relating to safety, air navigation, technical, legislative, and administrative matters, and more.
Tunisia
Activity reports and statistics of the air traffic (website in French).
Are you looking for other African countries? You may check the African Airlines Association (AFRAA). It offers annual reports, air transport reports, and statistical outlooks.
Please note that some of these websites may not be in English, but you can use online translation services to navigate and find the data you need. Furthermore, access to some data might be restricted or require registration or payment, depending on the source.
Therefore, it’s always important to respect the terms of service and scraping policies of the websites or APIs you plan to use.
Additionally, airline websites and OTAs may have rate-limiting measures or require authentication to access some specific data. So, you must use a web scraping tool or service that complies with those requirements, too.
Your Next Step
Airline data represents a big part of the travel and transportation industry. Web scraping and data mining technology can support your data-driven airline company activities or travel service website/software in defining profitable strategies, offering a better service, optimising business operations, avoiding losses and generating more profit.
You can efficiently handle all travel data applications, data sets, and sources through advanced web scraping tools or custom travel big-data web scraping services based on scalable data extraction infrastructure and engine. Remember to choose a data solution suitable for your IT structure, business resources, and sales objectives.
effortless airline data solution? GET a free audit
Extract airlines data in a few clicks
Do it easily and cheaply with a self-service no-code app.
Disclaimer: Always respect user privacy and copyright, follow ethical data scraping practices, and abide by the terms and conditions of the websites or platforms you’re scraping data from, as unauthorised data extraction may lead to legal or privacy issues. Therefore, ensure that your data collection and analysis methods are compliant. Furthermore, data can be noisy, unstructured, and constantly changing. Therefore, use a tool or service that can handle the volume and variety of data from multiple web sources. This article is for information purposes only and not intended as legal advice. Consult a lawyer for complete knowledge of the local and international laws.
Flag icons created by Freepik and other authors on Flaticon
