How to parse Amadeus air ticket file

Question

Amadeus produces AIR file like below for every flight reservation. I need to read reservation number and source and destination airports from this file.

I searched Google for "Amadeus air format" but haven't found format description. Wikipedia entry about EDIFACt is a bit different, it does not describe this content.

Where to find information about the file structure ? How to parse this file ? I have not idea about the file structure, does it contain records like SQL table or is it some reservation protocol instructions like postscript file ?

Application should work in Microsoft Windows and preferably in Visual FoxPro or C# language. FoxPro or Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 Express can used as programming environment

Google returns only Amadeus users guides and tutorials like in comment and in

http://www.amadeusschweiz.com/en/documentation/usermanuals.html

Those are user manuals. Most promising looks Amadeus Air user guide from this:

File which I received name was air.txt and first token in file is AIR-BLK206 Maybe BLK206 is some booking format descriptor. Google returns some documens like my using this so it looks like it is commonly used.

This file probably describes how to reserve ticket, which produces air.txt file.

I seacrched this and ticket user guide for BLK but those do not contains this abbreviation.

Commands in user manual look different than those from this file. How to use this information to extract reservation number and destination airport from this file ? I haven't found format description using Google. There are Amadeus user guides, tutorials and quick reference files similar which you posted but I don't understand how to use them to parse this file.

One message describes that this is form of EDIFACT. However EDIFACT message sample in Wikipedia is also different. I need to create quick prototype to customer which shows that we vćan read those files.

Maybe there are some programs which can used to display it in human readable form ?

Answer 1

You should consider contacting your local Amadeus Support for help regarding this. They offer excellent documentation around pretty much everything you need to know.

I'm 100% sure that what you're looking at not actually is EDIFACT. EDIFACT is very much delimited with pluses (+) and semicolon (;).

The example actually looks a lot more like a screen capture from the Amadeus Selling Platform with spaces replaced by semicolon(;). It's most likely a file in the Amadeus Interface Record format.

Also, parsing this file require you to know a great deal about how the Amadeus GDS works. And that's not very easy. A flight booking might seem like a trivial thing but it's a very complex world made up of strange ways to handle things.

Here is the product documentations (not including specifications) http://www.amadeus.com/travelagencies/x52025.html

Consider looking for your local sales office at http://www.amadeus.com/

Answer 2

the matter of parsing edifact-amadeus is much more complicated then getting the manual from amadeus. it takes inventing tree algorithms, managing large data files, timing procedures, etc. etc. if you do not have the time and drive go invent the wheel al over again, you'd better look for an existing solution. this is not a direct answer to the question you posed, but it is the outcome of some experience.

Answer 3

From previous attempts to hack my way through "alien" file formats, my first piece of advice would be to get as many files as you can for flights you already know the details of. This will let you see any commonalities between the files to give you an indication of recurring patterns.

At first glance the ";" would seem to be a separator / delimiter for information - having never seen this format before it could be that the format is data-only with the reading application pulling out elements based on tacit knowledge of the file structure.

Match known information

Build patterns

Answer 4

Contact Amadeus. You'll need to sign a non-disclosure, and they'll send you the complete documentation. Note that AIR files contain more than only flight tickets. They can contain Exchange tickets, Refunds,TASF's, EMD's, MCO's, and hotel/(localised)train/car/boat bookings. And note that the format of the AIR files can be tweaked using Amadeus ProPrinter.

Answer 5

Air’s are data files and can be read using notepad or word pad or any such program It includes data of Air, hote, train , car etc info in it and each has specific formats in which data is structured in the document If you contact your local Amadeus office you can get the document which explains the data structure of each of these files(a 273 page document) the delimiter/separator in this file is “,” The text AMD BLK 206 refers to Amadeus bulk file & 206 is the file structure which you should get clearly once you go through the document

Answer 6

Please go through this EDIFACT tutorial or basic guide which helps you understand the file structure and then you can easily parse it the way you like, more over there are tools available to parse EDIFACT files like notepad++ or EDInotepad.