The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced today that 40 airlines have signed a formal agreement to include their flight data within the IATA Aviation Data Exchange programme, noting that 40 other companies are currently preparing to join the program as well. The aviation data exchange program was launched in October 2023, and the first version of it is scheduled to be launched in March 2025.
Commenting on this topic, Willie Walsh, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said: “The early and strong support for the IATA Aviation Data Exchange program is a positive indicator of its potential success, as the program’s coverage is expanding day after day with every airline.” New airlines join us. In turn, we encourage all airlines, both members and non-members of IATA, to join this strategic sector-wide initiative.”
The Aviation Data Exchange program collects data on flight schedules, their capacity, and the minimum time required to connect two flights, after extracting them from various IATA products and services used to support network development, revenue management, scheduling coordination, and agreements between airlines. It should be noted that IATA is not developing a commercial product with the aim of replacing or competing with any entity currently working in the distribution of flight data. Airlines participating in the program will have access to the data it provides in exchange for providing the data available to them.
The program is available to all airlines, regardless of their membership in IATA, provided that these companies submit their data to IATA in the same format, frequency, and transmission method that they currently use to distribute their schedules. An advisory group of participating airlines will determine the data sharing principles and data release policy for the programme.
Walsh added: “The IATA Board of Governors has recognized that one of IATA’s strategic priorities is to become the most authoritative reference for industry data on a wide range of topics. This step also supports the industry by creating important data sets for IATA on a number of influential areas.” “We have seen significant interest from the industry towards providing aviation data through many potential sources, and airlines have become fully aware of the negative repercussions resulting from limited competition among their suppliers.”