The necessity of surviving during the economic upheaval of a global pandemic is fueling innovation in the airline industry. A new age of aviation is being built on digital technology and APIs to improve data sharing, reduce costs, and optimize revenue for carriers. API standards are the key to the success of any digital initiative, enabling interoperability between independent parties. The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the industry trade association responsible for developing the global standards for airlines, are utilizing SwaggerHub, the API design and documentation platform, to help bring these best practices to life. In this webinar session, we explore: How IATA’s Open Air initiative allows the industry to open up its digital capabilities for innovation Open Air standard as the common technical approach to describing API definitions Best practices for scaling API design and standardization across the industry A live API design demonstration with SwaggerHub and IATA

1. IATA OpenAir
How API Standardization Enables Innovation
in the Airline Industry

2. 2
Peter Sun
API Architect, Open Air, IATA
Joseph Joyce
Solutions Engineer, SmartBear
Matt McKinley
Sr. Manager, Technology Standards, IATA

3. 3
2009
15M+
users
12
24,000+
3 650+
customers
employees
founded global offices
open source
initiatives

4. What is IATA?
290
Airlines
433.3B
Processed by IATA
Financial Systems
53
Countries
presence
The International Air
Transport Association (IATA)
is the trade association for
the world’s airlines.
• Core roles:
• Advocacy
• Standards setting activities
• Aviation products and services

5. 5
Standards reduce costs and support
common behaviour
269 Resolutions and Recommended Practices
405 Data exchange messages
161 Active standard setting groups
2043 Airline Industry Data Model data elements

6. 6
APIs make your travel
experience safe and
efficient
70%* of airlines and airports
plan to provide Open APIs
*Source: IATA Survey, Summer 2017

7. Standardization continues to rank as the top
challenge (58%) for organizations as they
attempt to scale API development
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Data format Data definitions Industry
directory
Connection
methods
Imp. Guidance
Airlines Airports
Source: IATA Survey, Summer 2017
Over abundance of APIs in the market brings challenges
API Growth and Standards
Source: State of API 2020 Report - SmartBear
• interoperability
• discoverability
• common semantics
Standardization
Versioning
Security
Authentication
Other
Discoverability
Scalability
Integration between tools
Composability/reuse
2016
2019
2020

8. API Standardization – Two Approaches
Industry Standard API Provider Proprietary API
“As industry API provider, I want to
design my own API specifications
following industry agreed best
practices, and collaborate with IATA
team to certify my API.”
“Under industry governance, I want to
collaborate with other airlines and
partners to design a common industry
standard API specification.”

9. IATA’s Open Air Program
addresses those challenges by building an Open API
ecosystem through industry standards and services
under industry governance

10. Open Air API Standards
1.Consistent message processing
across airlines
2.Consistent data definitions
across messages
Airline
IT systems
Other
Airline /
Business
Partner
IT systems
Standard
Schema1
Standard
Schema2
Standard
Schema1
Standard
Schema2
JSON
(of schema1)
JSON
(of schema1)
JSON
(of schema2)
JSON
(of schema2)
A
P
I
A
P
I
IATA API standards leverage the Airline Industry Data Model to
automatically generate XML schemas and API specifications
Standard
Schema1
Standard
Schema2
Data Model
30+
Airlines and
strategic partners
1
Standard based on
OAS 3.0
5
Standard APIs built
in the last year

11. API Standardization – unified process
Open Air Design
Governance tool **
API Dev
Team
Designer Developer PO
Collaborate
Common
Model Repo
Compliance
Rule Set
Check
Open Air
Team
AIDM
Core
Model
Load
Provider API platform
API Design Tool
Exchange
Spec
Common
Model Repo
Lifecycle Mgmt……
Feed
Load
Use
Dev/SCM
Generate
Use
**: Open standard and API provider
platform agnostic
: Specification is verified as
Open Air Certified API

12. 1212
Improve Developer
Experience
Enable Intelligent
Standards
Seamless
Integrations
What is SwaggerHub?
Enables and enforces both internal
and industry standards with design-
first principles to improve API quality
Optimizes CI/CD processes with
integrations for SCM, build tools, API
gateways and DevOps environments
Provides workspaces for collaboration
and feedback within a secure, scalable
OpenAPI compliant platform

13. Why SwaggerHub?
{ }…
Swagger is the OpenAPI Specification
A Single Source of Truth for API Development
Single source of truth for
• Design
• Development
• Testing
• Operations
• Documentation
Provide structure at scale
• Team / Organization arrangement
• Manage permissions and sharing across teams
• Integrate w/SSO services
• Robust version support
Create design-driven workflows + processes
• Built-in commenting and feedback loop
• Bring distributed OpenAPI use together
• Hand off designs through SDLC stages
• Share common assets across teams and projects

14. Enforce design rules from the top down
• Define design rules to be used across an organization
• Resolve quality issues before reaching development
• Give real-time feedback as definitions are written
Create a library of reusable assets
• Store pre-approved definitions
• Teams create references
• Updates are pushed down to other services
Built on the industry standard for API definitions
• OpenAPI Initiative is a collaboration of leaders in the industry
• Industry wide support for OAS
• Evolving standard is growing and adapting to the needs of API
providers and consumers Asset Library
API_1 API_3API_2
Design Guidelines
!
✔ ✔
SwaggerHub and API Standardisation

15. Demo

16. Open Air adoption so far
12 Airlines and 1 start up have already certified
and published Open Air compliant APIs:
IATA’s API certification program validates the compliance of APIs
against Best Practices described in the Open Air API Certification
Compliance Checklist.
Exposure of APIs to
potential consumers
and possibility to gain
new business partners
Certification is free
of charge
More info:
iata.org/open-air
IATA Open Air
Registry

17. 17
Questions &
Answers

18. IATA and SmartBear Resources
• SwaggerHub Custom Rules Repository
• SwaggerHub Custom Rules
Documentation
• Check out SmartBear Blog
• IATA Open Air
• Open Air Standard
• API Directory
• Airline Industry Data Model
• Start a SwaggerHub Free Trial

19. Thank You