AirIndex: Real-time Airfare Price Intelligence Platform for India

AirIndex: Real-time Airfare Price Intelligence Platform for India

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  SMART INDIA HACKATHON2026 Problem Statement ID: SIH26056 Problem Statement Title: Development of a Real-time Airfare Price Index for India through Automated Web Scraping of Airline and Online Travel Aggregator Portals for Augmentation of CPI Theme: Tourism PS Category: Software Team Name: DARK CODERS Suggested subtitle: “ AirIndex — Real-time Airfare Price Intelligence Platform for India” Team Members: RITHIKA B S ADITHI M D RACHANAA N RAGUL A HARISH RAJA K KIRUNITH S
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  AirIndex — Real-timeAirfare Price Intelligence Platform for India @SIH Idea submission- Template Proposed Solution AirIndex: Real-time Airfare Price Intelligence Platform • Designed for automated domestic airfare collection from airlines and OTAs • Representative routes: DEL–BOM, DEL–BLR, BOM–BLR, DEL–CCU, BLR–HYD, MAA–DEL • Advance-purchase windows: T+1, T+7, T+15, T+30, T+45 • Normalize Base Fare + Taxes = Total Fare • Detect duplicates, unavailable quotes and outliers before indexing • Calculate a Base-100 Airfare Price Index • Daily / weekly / monthly analytics with route and carrier filters • Prototype currently validates the pipeline with permissioned/sample fixtures; lawful source connectors are the next deployment layer Dark coders Innovation / Uniqueness • Route-specific airfare intelligence • Multi-source design: airline + OTA connectors • Advance-booking elasticity analysis • Base-100 index with transparent methodology • Audit-friendly fare observations and exclusion flags • Historical backfill support • Interactive dashboard + CSV/API-ready outputs • Ethical collection design: permission, rate limits and source compliance CORE FLOW Source Feeds → Collection Layer → Normalization → Database → Index Engine → Dashboard / API
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  TECHNICAL APPROACH @SIH Ideasubmission- Template Dark coders Technologies FRONTEND • React 19 • TypeScript • Vite • Tailwind CSS • Recharts BACKEND • Node.js + TypeScript • Express / tRPC • Zod validation • Modular airfare analytics services IMPLEMENTATION FLOW 1 Source / sample fare observations ↓ 2 Fare normalization Base Fare + Taxes → Total Fare ↓ 3 Quality checks Availability → Duplicate → Outlier ↓ 4 MySQL + Drizzle storage ↓ 5 Index engine Route relatives → Basket weighting → APIx ↓ 6 React analytics dashboard Future layer: Permissioned airline / OTA collectors + scheduled jobs DATABASE • MySQL • Drizzle ORM • Indexed fare observations • Route, quote, index & benchmark tables ANALYTICS • Base-100 index • Route-weighted aggregation • Lead-time / elasticity analysis • Duplicate & outlier detection • CSV export
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  FEASIBILITY AND VIABILITY @SIHIdea submission- Template Dark coders Technical Feasibility Why feasible? • Working React dashboard with multiple analytical views • Working TypeScript backend with tRPC APIs • MySQL schema for routes, fare quotes and index observations • Deterministic prototype dataset for repeatable testing • Normalization reconciles base fare, taxes and total fare • Duplicate and outlier records are flagged and excluded from index calculations • CSV export and API endpoints are already supported • Index calculation is lightweight and suitable for scheduled processing Prototype Status ✓ Dashboard implemented ✓ Database model implemented ✓ Analytics + filtering implemented ✓ Methodology endpoint implemented → Automated airline / OTA ingestion is the next integration stage Scalability 6 representative routes ↓ 50+ routes ↓ 100+ routes ↓ More airline + OTA sources ↓ Pan-India airfare coverage Scale through: • Modular source adapters • Scheduled collection workers • Batch ingestion • Indexed database queries • Separate collection and analytics layers
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  IMPACT AND BENEFITS @SIHIdea submission- Template Dark coders TARGET USERS • NSO / MoSPI Faster, richer airfare price intelligence for CPI- related analysis • Policy & Economic Analysts Detect route-level and national airfare movements • Airlines / OTAs Benchmark market pricing and demand-sensitive fare movement • Researchers Study advance-booking elasticity and route trends • Travellers / Public Understand fare trends and booking-window effects IMPACT & BENEFITS ECONOMIC • Better visibility into volatile airfare movements • Supports evidence-based inflation analysis • Reveals route and lead-time price behaviour STATISTICAL • More frequent observations • Transparent Base-100 methodology • Multi-source coverage with audit flags TECHNICAL • Automated, scalable data pipeline design • Reusable APIs and dashboard analytics • Historical backfill and trend analysis GOVERNANCE • Permission-aware collection • Rate limiting and source-compliance safeguards • Clear separation of prototype data vs production feeds
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  RESEARCH AND REFERENCES @SIHIdea submission- Template Dark Coders Research Findings 1. MoSPI — CPI 2024 • Airfare is collected through online platforms in the revised CPI framework. • Alternative digital data sources are intended to improve representativeness, reliability and accuracy. 2. MoSPI — CPI / Transport Classification • Passenger transport by air is a defined transport-service category. • Air fare appears as an explicit CPI item in published weighting material. 3. BLS — Airline Fare CPI Methodology • Airline fare measurement uses defined trip specifications and advance- reservation conditions. • Taxes and applicable charges are included in the measured fare. 4. Index Methodology Insight • Fixed specifications + repeated observations help separate true price movement from changes in the sampled trip. OUR RESEARCH GAP Existing official collection → periodic / centrally processed AirIndex proposal → higher-frequency observation layer + route analytics + auditable raw fare records REFERENCES • MoSPI — CPI 2024 FAQs mospi.gov.in/uploads/documents/documents/1770891066052- Annexure_V.pdf • MoSPI — Concept Note on CPI 2024 mospi.gov.in/uploads/announcements/announcements_1769668736436_627 c92fc-4f97-47bb-99b7-c6a137c4b9b5_Concept_Note_Booklet_(1).pdf • MoSPI — CPI Warehouse cpi.mospi.gov.in • U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Airline Fares bls.gov/cpi/factsheets/airline-fares.htm NOTE Current prototype uses illustrative permitted/sample fixtures. It does NOT scrape airline or OTA sites yet; production connectors will be added with lawful access and source compliance.