What is Amadeus?

Amadeus is a Global Distribution System (GDS) and travel technology company founded in 1987, today serving airlines, travel agencies, airports, hotels, and railways worldwide. Amadeus processes approximately 40% of all global airline bookings and is the backbone of travel technology for major carriers including Air India, IndiGo, Emirates, and hundreds more.

For developers and travel businesses, Amadeus offers two distinct API tiers. The Self-Service APIs are a modern REST/JSON interface designed for startups, independent developers, and growing travel businesses. They are free to access in a test environment and use straightforward OAuth 2.0 authentication. The Enterprise APIs are SOAP/XML-based solutions for large-scale, mission-critical deployments such as major OTAs, airline websites, and global travel management companies.

Amadeus has become particularly relevant for Indian travel businesses because of its comprehensive coverage of domestic Indian carriers (IndiGo, Air India, SpiceJet, AkasaAir, Vistara) combined with full international connectivity, making it suitable for portals targeting both domestic leisure and international business travellers.

Key API Modules

Getting Started

1. 1
   Register at developers.amadeus.com — create a free account and get your API key and secret instantly.
2. 2
   Start with the test environment — Amadeus provides a sandbox with real-looking but non-bookable data for development and testing.
3. 3
   Integrate using the SDK — Amadeus provides official SDKs for Python, Node.js, Java, Ruby, and PHP. Install via Composer: composer require amadeus4dev/amadeus-php.
4. 4
   Switch to production — once testing is complete, submit a production access request. Amadeus reviews and approves within 2–5 business days.
5. 5
   Set up booking callbacks — configure webhook URLs for booking confirmations, PNR updates and payment notifications.

Sample API Request

{
  "GET /v2/shopping/flight-offers": {
    "originLocationCode": "DEL",
    "destinationLocationCode": "BOM",
    "departureDate": "2025-12-15",
    "adults": 1,
    "currencyCode": "INR",
    "max": 10
  }
}

// Sample Response (truncated)
{
  "data": [{
    "type": "flight-offer",
    "id": "1",
    "source": "GDS",
    "itineraries": [{
      "duration": "PT2H20M",
      "segments": [{
        "departure": { "iataCode": "DEL", "terminal": "2", "at": "2025-12-15T06:05:00" },
        "arrival": { "iataCode": "BOM", "terminal": "1", "at": "2025-12-15T08:25:00" },
        "carrierCode": "AI",
        "number": "868",
        "aircraft": { "code": "32B" }
      }]
    }],
    "price": { "currency": "INR", "total": "4823.00", "base": "3650.00" }
  }]
}

Pricing

Pros & Cons