How do search engines and travel aggregators get raw data?

Question

I throw up some ideas for travel search engines, and I wonder how these sites get the source data. Do they remove all content from the airline’s homepage? This seems like a lot of work, given the number of airlines, etc.

Is there any API or web service standard that corresponds to each airline?

Do I have to discuss access to the data data API for each airline I want to index?

Answer 1

This answer contains some useful links:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/527007/airline-reservation-systems/527200#527200

You can also take a look at the Amadeus and ITA websites (recently there was an ITA bought by google ), but they are extremely expensive.

I would expect big news to appear in this area in a year or so when the deal is approved.

@Fgblanch: the linked site does not see to provide any such API, they are a kind of online advertising agency.

Answer 2

In the European case, there is an affiliate platform called tradedoubler, which seems to provide such information through the API.

http://www.tradedoubler.com/index.html

Answer 3

I would suggest that airlines publish all their data in the form of feeds or web services - it is in their interest to make others sell their flights.

An interesting question though!

Answer 4

Aggregators do not clear information. They also do not need.

Airlines provide location and flight information for aggregators for sale on their behalf. It is often in the interest of airlines to work with these websites, as they can contribute to the eyeballs and, in turn, have a higher level of outflows and sales to help relieve seats.

Airlines are also known to sell directly from their sites. And this is the same information that aggregators receive, but airlines themselves are sometimes sold at a slightly cheaper price.

They really use the API, but are not sure if this is a standard format.