Flight Duration API Python API Docs | dltHub
Build a Flight Duration API-to-database pipeline in Python using dlt with AI Workbench support for Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
Last updated:
The Flight Duration API provides statistics on flight times between two airports. It returns average, minimum, and maximum durations. An invalid airport code returns an error. The REST API base URL is https://sitaopen.api.aero/duration and All requests require an OAuth access token supplied as a Bearer token for authentication..
dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv pip install "dlt[workspace]" and start loading Flight Duration API data in under 10 minutes.
What data can I load from Flight Duration API?
Here are some of the endpoints you can load from Flight Duration API:
| Resource | Endpoint | Method | Data selector | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| flight_duration | /v2/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport} | GET | Provides duration statistics for flights between two airports. | |
| flight_duration_split_by_airline | /v2/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}?split=airline | GET | Provides duration statistics for flights between two airports, split by airline. | |
| flight_duration_min_max | /v2/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}?showMinMax=true | GET | Provides duration statistics for flights between two airports, including minimum and maximum durations. |
How do I authenticate with the Flight Duration API API?
Authentication requires obtaining an OAuth access token via the OAuth2 Client Credential flow, using an API key as client_id and consumer secret as client_secret, base64 encoded in an Authorization header to the token endpoint. The resulting access token is then used as a Bearer token in the Authorization header for all API requests.
1. Get your credentials
- Create an account on https://www.developer.aero/. 2. Register your interest for access to the SITA Flight Duration API. 3. Obtain your API key and consumer secret from your account dashboard.
2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml
[sources.flight_duration_api_source] api_key = "your_api_key_here" client_secret = "your_client_secret_here"
dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.
How do I set up and run the pipeline?
Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:
uv venv && source .venv/bin/activate uv pip install "dlt[workspace]"
1. Install the dlt AI Workbench:
dlt ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex
This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →
2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:
dlt ai toolkit rest-api-pipeline install
This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →
3. Start LLM-assisted coding:
Use /find-source to load data from the Flight Duration API API into DuckDB.
The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.
4. Run the pipeline:
python flight_duration_api_pipeline.py
If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:
Pipeline flight_duration_api_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds 1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset flight_duration_api_data The duckdb destination used duckdb:/flight_duration_api.duckdb location to store data Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs
Inspect your pipeline and data:
dlt pipeline flight_duration_api_pipeline show
This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.
Python pipeline example
This example loads flight_duration and flight_duration_split_by_airline from the Flight Duration API API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:
import dlt from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources @dlt.source def flight_duration_api_source(api_key, client_secret=dlt.secrets.value): config: RESTAPIConfig = { "client": { "base_url": "https://sitaopen.api.aero/duration", "auth": { "type": "bearer", "token": api_key, client_secret, }, }, "resources": [ {"name": "flight_duration", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}"}}, {"name": "flight_duration_split_by_airline", "endpoint": {"path": "v2/{originAirport}/{destinationAirport}?split=airline"}} ], } yield from rest_api_resources(config) def get_data() -> None: pipeline = dlt.pipeline( pipeline_name="flight_duration_api_pipeline", destination="duckdb", dataset_name="flight_duration_api_data", ) load_info = pipeline.run(flight_duration_api_source()) print(load_info)
To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.
How do I query the loaded data?
Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.
Python (pandas DataFrame):
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("flight_duration_api_pipeline").dataset() sessions_df = data.flight_duration.df() print(sessions_df.head())
SQL (DuckDB example):
SELECT * FROM flight_duration_api_data.flight_duration LIMIT 10;
In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:
import dlt data = dlt.pipeline("flight_duration_api_pipeline").dataset() data.flight_duration.df().head()
See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.
What destinations can I load Flight Duration API data to?
dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:
| Destination | Example value |
|---|---|
| DuckDB (local, default) | "duckdb" |
| PostgreSQL | "postgres" |
| BigQuery | "bigquery" |
| Snowflake | "snowflake" |
| Redshift | "redshift" |
| Databricks | "databricks" |
| Filesystem (S3, GCS, Azure) | "filesystem" |
Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.
Next steps
Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI Workbench:
data-exploration— Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.dlthub-runtime— Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.
dlt ai toolkit data-exploration install dlt ai toolkit dlthub-runtime install
Was this page helpful?
Community Hub
Need more dlt context for Flight Duration API?
Request dlt skills, commands, AGENT.md files, and AI-native context.