End Client Empty Leg Search
The empty leg search operation can be used to find empty legs that interest your end clients.
Empty Leg Search
The empty leg search operation can be used to find empty legs that could be of interest given the input parameters specified. The input can be a start airport and/or an end airport, along with a time span. The empty leg search algorithm tries to match empty legs available in that time span that can be of interest given the input parameters.
For example, if the entered input is from Paris to Rome, a search might return an empty leg from London to Rome since Paris is almost on that route.
The operator can in this case fly empty from London to Paris, pick up the passengers and fly them from Paris to Rome. The operator can then make some money on this otherwise non-profitable flight from London to Rome.
Similar matches are made if only the start airport or only the end airport is specified in the input. For example if the start airport is in San Francisco and no end airport is specified, then an empty leg from Los Angeles to New York can be returned since it is a relatively short distance between Los Angeles and San Francisco compared with the total distance of the empty leg.
Feasibility
For an empty leg to match it has to be deemed feasible in terms of the ratio between the distance of the empty leg segment (NM) and the requested distance (NM). If they differ too much the empty leg will not match.
Go Live!
Implementation checklist
All items on this checklist must be implemented for an application of this type to be allowed to call the live production environment of Avinode Marketplace:
- If the Avinode Airport lookup API is used; when an end client is entering itinerary details, the application should call on the GET /airports/search endpoint for airport lookup.
Note:The application is not allowed to call the service in any repetitive or automated fashion to collect airport information- The application calls on the POST /api/emptylegs/search endpoint with valid parameters to run an availability search.
- The application successfully retrieves the search results response.
- The application does not display any information (seller name, aircraft tail number, etc) or images from the search results that could easily identify the seller/operator.
- The application does not store data retrieved from searches in its own back-end, nor does it build a “database” based on returned search results.
- The application does not allow the end client to send out a request RFQ directly to an operator based on a search result. The empty leg preferred by the end client should be used to generate a lead in Avinode Marketplace.
- The application calls on the appropriate POST /leads endpoint with valid parameters, which will generate a Client Lead in Avinode Marketplace.
- The application does not store any data related to options that aren’t requested by the end client.
Optional feature: Empty Leg Subscription
This use case should be implemented when the broker wants to subscribe to notifications every time there is an empty leg published or updated in Avinode Marketplace, from a certain company and/or for a certain route of interest. The empty leg data can then be downloaded and published in an end-client app to allow browsing and to book available flights.
Setup an empty leg subscription using the API
The empty leg subscription, also known as an "empty leg watch configuration", is setup using the API, and the settings can also be viewed inside Avinode once created (Company - Settings - Empty Leg Notifications).
Webhook notifications are used to send out the message of a new, updated or removed empty leg. See the Avinode Webhooks page for more details on how to create these settings, and the empty leg section on how to specifically subscribe to empty leg notifications.
The empty leg watch configuration is created using endpoint POST /emptylegs/watches and should contain some of the following criteria, where specifying at least one segment is required.
- List of segments (region to region pairs) where at least one should match to send a push. A segment can be defined using either an airport code, an ICAO prefix (to define the airport region) or a country code (also province code is available but only for the US and Canada)
- Aircraft category, type or tail number
- Should the empty leg be priced
- Should the empty leg be verified by the seller
- Number of days out are you looking for (a rolling calculation of if the empty leg departure is within NOW + the configured days out. (Only empty legs within span is pushed)
Super user settings
Some settings of the empty leg subscription can only be configured by Avinode super users, for example a subscription to all available empty legs. Talk to your account manager if this is an option you consider.
Updated about 2 months ago