Public REST API for airport data with developer portal

EuroAirport provides a public REST API (Application Programming Interface) with which the airport data can be integrated into third-party applications. Airlines, for example, use this API to display airport data in their apps. However, internal applications such as the website or the EuroAirport app also access this API.

Author: Roberto De Simone
Date: 06/01/2024

Why do we need a public REST API?

EuroAirport is obliged to make certain data publicly available.

The development of a REST API, which is a widely supported industry standard, enables developers to easily access this API using any programming language and thus integrate the data into their applications.

With this API, EuroAirport provides interested parties with a convenient solution for data retrieval without having to specially prepare data for individual customers (e.g. airlines).

A developer portal has also been created for the API, which allows you to register as a developer and contains the documentation for the endpoints.

Technological challenges

When developing such an API, the following problems must be taken into account:

Security aspects

An airport is a sensitive organisation for which security aspects are a core requirement. The application of best practices during development and a clear separation of the infrastructure from internal applications play a central role here.

”Traffic” and availability

Because applications with thousands of daily users, such as the EuroAirport website or the EuroAirport app, use the API, it is important that a high level of availability is guaranteed at all times.

Versioning

There are always reasons why adjustments need to be made to the API. If such adjustments are necessary, care must be taken to ensure that the functionality of the consuming applications is not broken. If you want to change the calls to the endpoints, a new API version is required. At the same time, old versions must be operated for a long time in order to offer the consuming applications the longest possible migration time.

Summary

It is interesting to develop a tool that is used by a large number of applications and is exposed to such high traffic.

Even if the same programming concepts are used as for a private API, there are special requirements in terms of security, availability and maintenance of the API.