In short, most travel platforms benefit from using both. A live flight API delivers real-time pricing for any route on demand, while cached flight data serves pre-fetched results in milliseconds for high-volume routes. Choosing the right architecture depends on your routes, search volumes, and cost tolerances, and combining both approaches usually delivers the best results.
What is a live flight API?
A live flight API connects directly to airline inventory and queries it in real time whenever a customer searches. When someone enters a route and date, the API reaches out to GDS (Global Distribution System) and NDC (New Distribution Capability) sources, which airlines use to distribute fares, then gathers current availability and pricing before returning the results.
InfiniteAPI is a live flight API that connects travel businesses to GDS and NDC content from Lime and Aviate, covering hundreds of airlines worldwide.
As a result, you get real-time fares and unlimited route coverage. However, every search triggers a live query, which takes longer and costs more per call. Live APIs work best for unusual or infrequent routes and situations where pricing accuracy at the exact moment of search matters most.
What is cached flight data?
Cached flight data consists of flight pricing that a flight cache pre-fetches and stores before a customer searches. Instead of querying airlines at the point of search, a flight cache runs automated searches across configured routes, airlines, and fare types, then stores the results so it can serve them instantly.
InfiniteCache is a flight cache for tour operators and OTAs that delivers pre-searched fares from Lime and Aviate’s GDS and NDC content in just 0.23 milliseconds — around ten times faster than a traditional live API call.
One trade-off is that you’re limited to the routes you’ve configured to cache, and every fare has an age. InfiniteCache refreshes cached results multiple times a day and always confirms live pricing before ticketing. This approach makes the most sense for high-volume, predictable routes, price widgets, destination pages, and package pricing.
Many travel businesses underestimate the impact of speed. A three-second load time is associated with a 53% customer abandonment rate. Fast search results are more than a technical improvement — they’re a proven way to increase conversions.
| ⚡ Live flight API | 🗄 Cached flight data | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Real-time, exact | Refreshed regularly, confirmed at booking |
| Speed | Seconds | Milliseconds |
| Best for | Rare or infrequent routes | High-volume, predictable routes |
| API cost | Higher per search | Lower per search |
| Route coverage | Any route, on demand | Routes you’ve configured to cache |
| Use cases | Unusual searches, last-minute bookings | Price widgets, search pages, package pricing |
Why most platforms use both
Modern flight booking platforms don’t force a choice between live and cached data — they route searches intelligently. They serve popular routes from the cache, fall back to live searches for everything else, and confirm live pricing before issuing every ticket, regardless of where the fare originated.
That approach delivers instant results where they have the biggest impact on conversions, maintains complete route coverage, and keeps search costs under control by using live API calls only when they’re genuinely needed.
Avoid common mistakes such as caching low-volume routes that don’t justify it, treating cached prices as final booking prices, or refreshing volatile, high-demand routes too infrequently.
Many travel businesses combine InfiniteAPI with InfiniteCache for the best of both worlds -instant results on busy routes, live accuracy where it counts, and lower search costs overall.
Interested? See more about InfiniteAPI and InfiniteCache.
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