British Airways

British Airways Plc is the United Kingdom's flag carrier, headquartered at Waterside near London Heathrow and owned since 2011 by International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL. In the distribution chain BA is a supplier of its own seat inventory, reached either through the three legacy GDSs, through IATA NDC connections it operates itself, or direct on ba.com. BA was one of the earliest and most aggressive NDC adopters: from 1 November 2017 IAG applied a per-fare-component Distribution Technology Charge to BA and Iberia marketed fares that are not booked through an NDC based connection or a low-cost channel such as ba.com, explicitly pricing GDS intermediation out of the stack. Its API posture is honest to state plainly - the NDC distribution API is real and is built on the IATA EDIST message set, but there is no public specification, no published base URL, no self-serve signup and no exit path. Access requires registration, a B1 or B2 certification form, acceptance of the British Airways API and Services Trial Use Agreement plus the Travel Agency Addendum for IATA accredited agents, and signed live API contracts. The older public consumer REST APIs (Flight Information, Flight Offers, Lowest Prices, In-Flight Entertainment, Hotel/Car/Flight packages) on the IAG Developer Programs portal are gone: as of 2026-07-28 developer.iairgroup.com returns HTTP 404 and api.ba.com returns HTTP 596 ERR_596_SERVICE_NOT_FOUND for every documented resource.

British Airways publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Travel, United Kingdom, Aviation, Airline, and Distribution.

The British Airways catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification.

British Airways’ developer surface includes authentication, sandbox, developer portal, documentation, and 18 more developer resources.

23.7/100 emerging Agent 19/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.5
1 APIs
TravelUnited KingdomAviationAirlineDistributionNDCBookingCorporate TravelAirports

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 23.7/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 5.7 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 7.0 / 20
Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20
Operational Transparency 3.1 / 13
Governance 0.0 / 12
Discoverability 8.0 / 10
Agent readiness — 19/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 6 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 4 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/british-airways: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 1

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

British Airways NDC API

British Airways' IATA New Distribution Capability API - a direct link into BA's host reservation system for flight shopping, ordering, ticketing and post-booking servicing, oper...

Event Specifications 1

AsyncAPI definitions for this provider's event-driven and streaming APIs.

Security Posture 3

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

British Airways Authentication

openIdConnect/apiKey · 2 schemes

SECURITY

British Airways Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

British Airways Vulnerability Disclosure

Hackerone · contact published

SECURITY

Scopes 1

OAuth scopes governing access to this provider's APIs.

British Airways Scopes

4 scopes · authorizationCode/implicit/deviceCode

4 scopes

SCOPES

Resources

Get Started 4

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Documentation 1

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Agent Surfaces 2

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

Design & Contract 4

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Access & Security 5

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Company 4

The organization behind the API

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
aid: british-airways
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/british-airways/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
name: British Airways
kind: company
description: 'British Airways Plc is the United Kingdom''s flag carrier, headquartered at Waterside near London Heathrow and
  owned since 2011 by International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling and LEVEL.
  In the distribution chain BA is a supplier of its own seat inventory, reached either through the three legacy GDSs, through
  IATA NDC connections it operates itself, or direct on ba.com. BA was one of the earliest and most aggressive NDC adopters:
  from 1 November 2017 IAG applied a per-fare-component Distribution Technology Charge to BA and Iberia marketed fares that
  are not booked through an NDC based connection or a low-cost channel such as ba.com, explicitly pricing GDS intermediation
  out of the stack. Its API posture is honest to state plainly - the NDC distribution API is real and is built on the IATA
  EDIST message set, but there is no public specification, no published base URL, no self-serve signup and no exit path. Access
  requires registration, a B1 or B2 certification form, acceptance of the British Airways API and Services Trial Use Agreement
  plus the Travel Agency Addendum for IATA accredited agents, and signed live API contracts. The older public consumer REST
  APIs (Flight Information, Flight Offers, Lowest Prices, In-Flight Entertainment, Hotel/Car/Flight packages) on the IAG Developer
  Programs portal are gone: as of 2026-07-28 developer.iairgroup.com returns HTTP 404 and api.ba.com returns HTTP 596 ERR_596_SERVICE_NOT_FOUND
  for every documented resource.'
image: https://images.ctfassets.net/nwnmkeyu03hy/1qDtSOnE37fsTzD4GPdfFN/347c175022b9aec007a10630028a4439/British-Airways-logo.png
tags:
- Travel
- United Kingdom
- Aviation
- Airline
- Distribution
- NDC
- Booking
- Corporate Travel
- Airports
created: '2026-07-28'
modified: '2026-07-28'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: british-airways:british-airways-ndc-api
  name: British Airways NDC API
  description: British Airways' IATA New Distribution Capability API - a direct link into BA's host reservation system for
    flight shopping, ordering, ticketing and post-booking servicing, operated jointly across IAG for BA and Iberia. It implements
    the IATA EDIST message set (the ndc.ba.com application carries the XML namespace http://www.iata.org/IATA/EDIST/2017.2),
    with a 21.3 pilot programme running alongside the 17.2 production version. The IAG developer portal described the 17.2
    plan as AirShopping, OfferPrice, SeatAvailability, OrderCreate, OrderRetrieve, AirDocIssue, OrderChange, OrderReShop and
    OrderChangeNotif. No OpenAPI or WSDL is published, no production base URL is published, and there is no self-serve access
    - see review.yml for the full certification and contracting path.
  humanURL: https://ndc.ba.com/developer/api-documentation
  tags:
  - NDC
  - Distribution
  - Flights
  - Booking
  - Ticketing
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/developer/api-documentation
  - type: Portal
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/start/build-and-test-the-api
  - type: SignUp
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/start/ndc-registrations
  - type: Support
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/faq/technical
  - type: DeveloperPortal
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/
  - type: Roadmap
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/developer/ndc-product-api-roadmap
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/british-airways-authentication.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/british-airways-conventions.yml
  - type: Lifecycle
    url: lifecycle/british-airways-lifecycle.yml
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/british-airways-ndc-notifications.yml
  - type: Sandbox
    url: sandbox/british-airways-sandbox.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/capability/ndc-offer-management
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://ndc.ba.com/capability/ndc-order-management
  - type: LegacyPortal
    url: https://developer.iairgroup.com/british_airways
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/british-airways-domain-security.yml
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/british-airways-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: Security
  url: https://hackerone.com/british_airways_vdp
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/british-airways-authentication.yml
- type: OAuthScopes
  url: scopes/british-airways-scopes.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/british-airways-well-known.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/british-airways-conformance.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/british-airways-lifecycle.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/british-airways-conventions.yml
- type: Webhooks
  url: asyncapi/british-airways-ndc-notifications.yml
- type: Sandbox
  url: sandbox/british-airways-sandbox.yml
- type: Packages
  url: packages/british-airways-packages.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/british-airways-llms.txt
- type: Roadmap
  url: https://ndc.ba.com/developer/ndc-product-api-roadmap
- type: Website
  url: https://www.britishairways.com/
- type: Portal
  url: https://ndc.ba.com/
- type: PartnerPortal
  url: https://www.britishairways.com/travel-partner-connect/en/kr/policies/booking-and-ticketing/distribution-technology-charge-guide
- type: Documentation
  url: https://www.britishairways.com/assets/pdfs/updates/distribution-technology-charge.pdf
- type: LegacyPortal
  url: https://developer.iairgroup.com/british_airways
- type: Newsroom
  url: https://mediacentre.britishairways.com/
- type: Investors
  url: https://www.iairgroup.com/
- type: LinkedIn
  url: https://www.linkedin.com/company/british-airways
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com