Aviationstack

@pipeworx/aviationstack

Aviationstack MCP — global flight tracking + airport / airline / route reference data.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1872+ live data sources. This is an independent, unofficial integration — not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by the upstream provider.

Tools

• flights(flight_iata?, flight_icao?, dep_iata?, arr_iata?, airline_iata?, flight_status?, limit?, offset?) — real-time + scheduled flights
• airports(search?, iata_code?, icao_code?, limit?, offset?) — airport database (~10k airports)
• airlines(search?, iata_code?, icao_code?, limit?, offset?) — airline database
• cities(search?, iata_code?, country_iso2?, limit?) — city → primary airport mapping
• countries(search?, country_iso2?, limit?) — country reference
• routes(dep_iata?, arr_iata?, airline_iata?, flight_number?, limit?) — scheduled routes
• aviationstack_future_flights(iataCode, type, date, airline_iata?, airline_icao?, flight_number?, limit?, offset?) — scheduled future flights at one airport for a specific date (type: departure or arrival). Backed by Aviationstack's /flightsFuture endpoint, which apilayer's 2026-10-06 notice opened only for the next 7 days — date must be tomorrow..today+7 (UTC); the pack refuses out-of-window dates itself before calling upstream (fleet #2700).

Auth

• Platform key: gateway env PLATFORM_AVIATIONSTACK_KEY
• BYO: ?_apiKey=<key> after registering at https://aviationstack.com/signup/free

Plan tier

As of 2026-10-06 the shared platform key is on a plan that reaches flights, airports, airlines, cities, countries and routes live (verified: airports/JFK and routes/JFK→LAX both returned non-empty data — neither is free-tier-only any more; an earlier version of this README, written 2026-08-28, said otherwise and was stale). aviationstack_future_flights was added the same day the vendor emailed that they opened /flightsFuture more broadly; whether our specific plan reaches that endpoint was not independently confirmed before this tool shipped (the platform key's raw value is a Cloudflare/Supabase secret, not available to a pack-authoring session) — if a live call answers HTTP 403 function_access_restricted, that means the plan doesn't cover this endpoint yet and is a money/plan decision, not a pack bug.

The free plan (if the platform key ever reverts to it) is capped at 100 requests per month, and once that is spent every endpoint answers 429 — including ones the tier would otherwise allow. Free plan is also HTTP-only (no https) — the pack already uses http://.

Reading a 429 here: Aviationstack labels the monthly-allowance refusal with the code rate_limit_reached and only says "monthly" in the message text, so the code name argues for a burst limit that clears in seconds when the truth is a wall that lasts until the plan renews. The pack branches on the message, not the code. Fleet #577.

Data source

http://api.aviationstack.com/v1/ — access_key query param. /flightsFuture spec: https://api.swaggerhub.com/apis/apilayer-863/AviationstackAPI/1.0.0/swagger.json

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aviationstack": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/aviationstack/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/aviationstack/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1872+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/flights \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"flight_iata":"AA100","dep_iata":"JFK","arr_iata":"LAX"}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/flights. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Standalone (no gateway account)

This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "aviationstack": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-aviationstack"]
    }
  }
}

Or run it directly to confirm it starts:

npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-aviationstack

It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Aviationstack data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT