Unified API Flight Booking System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current charter flight booking systems face issues such as delayed updates in flight information, inefficient use of aircraft, high costs for multi-leg flights, and the lack of a unified platform for comparing charter and commercial flights, leading to a poor user experience and hidden mark-ups for consumers.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a centralized computing device that receives flight information from both charter and commercial providers via a unified API, allowing for real-time updates and comparison, and enabling users to search and book flights efficiently across both types, with features for auctioning unused legs and managing bookings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If charter brokers obtain flight information through provider-specific APIs, then flight information can be obtained from multiple providers, but updates are delayed and information lag occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The patent consolidates multiple provider-specific APIs into a single standardized broker API. The system receives flight information from various aircraft providers through their respective APIs, normalizes this data according to a common schema, and exposes it through a unified broker API. This merging eliminates information lag by centralizing the data flow and allows real-time updates to be propagated consistently across all clients.
Solution Approach 2:
The broker system acts as an intermediary layer between aircraft providers and clients. Instead of clients directly querying multiple provider APIs, the broker receives, standardizes, and redistributes flight information through a single standardized interface. This intermediary role resolves the contradiction by decoupling providers from clients while maintaining real-time information flow.
2Reliability
If individuals book aircraft for multi-leg flights, then complete travel coverage is ensured, but costs increase and aircraft utilization efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments multi-leg flights into individual legs that can be independently booked and priced. Instead of forcing customers to book entire multi-leg itineraries as bundled products, the system allows booking of individual legs or combinations of legs. This segmentation enables dynamic pricing based on actual aircraft utilization and allows the system to optimize aircraft routing by combining different customers' leg requirements into efficient multi-leg routes.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements dynamic routing and pricing for multi-leg flights. Aircraft routes are dynamically constructed by combining individual leg bookings from multiple customers, optimizing utilization in real-time. The pricing and routing can adapt based on demand patterns, allowing the system to maintain reliability for customers while maximizing aircraft efficiency through flexible, dynamic itinerary construction.
3Adaptability or versatility
If charter and commercial flight information are provided through separate sources, then specialized services are maintained, but user experience deteriorates due to inability to compare
Solution Approach 1:
The broker system provides a universal platform that handles both charter and commercial flight information through a single standardized API. The system maintains the specialized characteristics of different flight types while enabling unified search, comparison, and booking capabilities. Clients can query and compare both charter and commercial options through the same interface, eliminating the need to switch between multiple specialized sources.
4Ease of manufacture
If aircraft providers use preset flight routes and times, then operational simplicity is maintained, but flexibility to accommodate customer preferences decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements dynamic flight planning where preset routes and times serve as base configurations but can be modified based on customer preferences and aircraft utilization opportunities. The broker system allows providers to start with standardized flight templates while enabling flexible adjustments to routes, times, and stops based on real-time demand and the need to combine multiple customers into efficient multi-leg itineraries.
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure provides a description of systems and methods for managing routes and travel planning. A computing device of an entity receives, from a charter flight transportation provider and via an application programming interface associated with the entity, charter flight information for a plurality of charter flights. The computing device receives, from a commercial transportation provider and via an application programming interface associated with a different entity, commercial flight information for a plurality of commercial flights. The computing device stores records for the charter flight information and the commercial flight information. The computing device provides, to a user computing device, data for the user computing device to generate a single user interface including charter flight information, commercial flight information, and fields to enter search criteria. The computing device receives, from the user computing device, user-input search criteria including user starting location, user ending location, and date of travel.