Revolutionizing Airfreight: The Power of Rate and Book APIs

As the airfreight industry continues to evolve in response to growing customer demands and technological advancements, efficiency and transparency in pricing and booking processes have become critical. Rate and Book APIs are among the most transformative tools helping logistics providers deliver fast, accurate, and automated solutions to meet these demands. This blog will explore what Rate and Book APIs are, their diverse use cases, the challenges they help address, and the efficiencies they bring to the airfreight sector.

Click here if you missed our blogs on Tracking APIs, Route and Schedule APIs and Sustainability APIs.

What are Rate and Book APIs in Airfreight?

Rate and Book APIs integrate airfreight rate and booking functionalities within a user’s Transport Management System (TMS), enabling stakeholders to access and book real-time rates seamlessly. Unlike traditional processes, such as manual rate negotiations via email or phone, APIs provide instant access to updated rates from airlines and automatically confirm bookings with just a few clicks. By integrating with multiple data sources—including airlines, general sales agents (GSAs), and third-party rate aggregators—these APIs facilitate efficient pricing and booking operations, enhancing overall supply chain agility.

In the airfreight industry, speed and accuracy are paramount. Rate and Book APIs play a crucial role in providing real-time flight options, rate visibility and immediate booking confirmations, providing freight forwarders with the tools necessary to grow and scale their businesses.

The Importance of Rate and Booking APIs: Challenges They Help Overcome

Traditional manual methods of obtaining rates and making bookings in airfreight have long been plagued by inefficiencies:

Fragmented Visibility and Inconsistent Rates: Airfreight rates fluctuate based on factors like airline capacity, route availability, fuel prices, and seasonal demand. Manually obtaining rates can lead to inconsistencies and delays, impacting decision-making and competitiveness. Rate APIs consolidate pricing from multiple sources, offering near real-time accuracy and helping stakeholders make informed decisions quickly.
Time-Consuming Booking Processes: The traditional booking process involves significant back-and-forth communication via emails or phone calls with airlines or GSAs. Booking APIs eliminate these inefficiencies by offering instant booking confirmations, reducing administrative workload, and speeding up the overall process.
Reduced Accuracy Due to Manual Input: Manual rate inquiries and booking requests are prone to errors, often leading to discrepancies or wrongly booked rates or flights. By automating these processes, APIs ensure accuracy, allowing logistics providers to move fast and accurate, thus delivering a reliable customer experience.
Limited Access to Capacity Information: Without real-time updates, freight forwarders struggle to assess available capacity accurately, leading to overbooking or lost cost-saving opportunities. Rate and Booking APIs provide the latest capacity space available, allowing logistics providers to make better decisions on how to best make use of this capacity space for any given flight.
Inconsistent Data Formats: Different carriers often provide information in varying formats, making it challenging to compare options efficiently. Rate and Book APIs standardize this data, allowing logistics providers to quickly analyze and compare different offers, streamlining the decision-making process.

Use Cases for Rate and Booking APIs in Airfreight

Rate and Book APIs offer a range of benefits across different airfreight stakeholders:

Seamless Booking Processes: Book APIs allow for direct bookings within logistics platforms, removing the need to navigate multiple airline websites or various booking portals. Once a quote is accepted by a customer, the booking process can immediately be initiated.
Rate Shopping and Optimization: Having easy access to and the ability to compare rates from various carriers enhances decision-making, cost efficiency, instant and accurate quoting, and overall customer satisfaction. By integrating rate comparison features directly into their systems, forwarders can optimize routing choices and offer transparent pricing.
Capacity Management: Near real-time visibility into available capacity provides insights that enable more efficient utilization and strategic planning. By monitoring space availability as it fluctuates, providers can better allocate their resources, optimize their operations, and make informed decisions that enhance overall operational and financial efficiency.
Integration with TMS and ERP Systems: Seamless integration with existing systems creates a cohesive workflow for pricing, booking, and shipment management, establishing a single source of truth.

Beyond Traditional Methods: Why Modern Rate and Book Solutions Are Necessary

Speed: Traditional rate inquiries usually involve sending requests to multiple carriers and waiting for their responses, which can take hours or even days. In contrast, this process is automated through the API, making it nearly instantaneous and enabling freight forwarders to deliver on-the-spot quotes and booking confirmations to customers.
Minimized Manual Effort: Manually checking for available space, updating rates, and confirming bookings can be cumbersome and prone to errors. APIs digitize these workflows, accelerating operations and providing stakeholders with accurate, real-time information.
Interactivity: APIs enable two-way communication, allowing for not just data retrieval but also a variety of actions, such as submitting booking requests and receiving confirmation responses.
Ease of Integration: Modern APIs are typically easier to integrate with current software systems than legacy solutions, enabling organizations to enhance their technology stack without the complexities tied to older systems.
Comprehensive Visibility Across Multiple Sources: Booking APIs consolidate data from airlines, GSAs, and third-party sources, allowing freight forwarders to offer a wider range of options, even beyond the major carriers, and improving overall service quality.

CargoAi’s Rate and Book API: Powering Efficiency and Accuracy in Airfreight

CargoAi's Rate and Book API empowers logistics providers by providing seamless access to real-time rates and instant booking capabilities for over 200 airlines, including more than 40 that are exclusive only to CargoAi. With an easy and user-friendly integration process, our API delivers a reliable, all-in-one solution that caters to the end-to end process of airfreight shipment operations including rate management, quote generation, even providing you with airline quality scores to make informed decisions.

Key Features of CargoAi’s Rate and Booking API:

Classic Booking Flow: With the classic booking flow, users can search and book a flight using general parameters such as the origin, destination, shipment weight, dimensions and type. You will be presented with the best options and will have the ability to sort or filter according to price, transit time, carrier quality score, aircraft type, and CO2 emissions.
Direct Booking: For users who already know their desired flight details, the Direct Booking endpoint allows them to bypass the search and rate process and book directly. This endpoint facilitates seamless bookings by matching flight numbers and departure dates, automatically suggesting alternatives if mismatches occur.
Flight Schedules & Rate Search:CargoAi’s Rate and Booking API offers flexible search capabilities, enabling users to search for flight schedules and rates:
- By Airport: Users can search based on specific airport codes for precise flight and rate information.
- By City: The search functionality allows users to explore available flights and rates by city, enhancing flexibility in planning.
- FlyWINDOW: Additionally, users can utilize our FlyWINDOW booking feature. Each bookable rate response includes a FlyWINDOW link, which enables you to initiate the booking process with a single click redirecting you to our CargoMART environment. This may also be generated from within your own TMS. Click here for a demo of our FlyWINDOW.
Allotment Bookings: By linking your IATA CASS number or using your actual allotment codes CargoAi’s Direct Booking allows for bookings under allotment directly through the Rate & Book API without having to manually confirm with each airline.
Booking Cancellations: Cancellation functionality plays a vital role within airfreight and our Booking API offers you the ability to cancel a previously arranged shipment.
Track by Flight UUID: This endpoint allows users to monitor booking statuses, retrieve AWB numbers, and access detailed updates from booking initiation to departure. This feature ensures users are informed of any changes and can make proactive decisions regarding their shipments.

Key Benefits of CargoAi’s Rate and Booking API:

Real-Time Rate Updates: Access up-to-date promo, contract, dynamic, market, and express rates directly from our vast network of airlines.
Instant Booking Confirmation: Secure capacity with a single click, minimizing the time spent manually confirming each booking with various stakeholders.
Comprehensive Coverage: Gain visibility into capacity and rates from our industry leading airline coverage (200+ and counting), ensuring complete and comprehensive market access.
Flexible Search Options: Search for flights and rates by airport, city, or utilize FlyWINDOW for a simplified experience.
Error Handling for AWB Management: Flexibility to handle AWB allocation issues through well-defined error codes, ensuring clear and efficient exception management.

Would you like more information on our Rate and Book API and how it can benefit you and your business? Don't hesitate to book a quick call or a free demo with an expert from the CargoCONNECT team here.

Conclusion

Rate and Booking APIs are revolutionizing the airfreight industry by providing real-time access to crucial pricing and capacity information. By streamlining processes, reducing manual work, and enabling data-driven decision-making, these APIs are helping logistics providers meet the growing demands for speed, efficiency, and transparency in the global supply chain.

As technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more sophisticated integrations that will further transform how airfreight is priced, booked, and managed. For logistics providers looking to stay competitive in an increasingly digital landscape, adopting and leveraging Rate and Booking APIs is becoming not just an advantage, but a necessity.

Stay tuned for our next week's blog that will help put things together, understanding if API Integrations are for you and get a quick guide on how to start integrating.

For more information about CargoCONNECT, CargoAi’s API suite, download our brochure or contact our Support team.