The Rise of Aviation-Specific MCP Integrations
MCP – or Model Context Protocol – was introduced by Anthropic in 2024. A relatively new technology, it has found rapid adoption with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) in almost every industry working to bridge the gap between technology and human needs. Currently, it is mainly being used in AI, tech or enterprise software as it is very nascent.
Aviation is a sector where, by nature of the operative framework, quick and accurate data transfer between booking engines, airlines, airports and passengers is very crucial and time-bound. In such use cases, contextual exposure to information becomes very important.
But what is MCP?
The main goal for MCP is to provide a unified way for AI models, especially large language models (LLMs) to communicate with external tools, data sources, and systems. Instead of building a custom integration for each system (database, API, file store, etc.), MCP gives a “universal adapter” for AI agents to plug into many systems reliably.
Thinking of it in passenger journey terms –
Say you wish to travel from Delhi to Dubai for 25th December 2025. There are so many ways of searching, indexing and presenting the search results – all managed by the airline’s AI assistant/LLM. The LLM first asks the MCP Client for the information. The request is formatted into a standard method of expression and then fed into the MCP server. This server securely “exposes” or provides the necessary flight options by verifying the GDS/CRS availability and returns results in the same protocol to the airline’s AI bot. The LLM decodes it back then adds on fare families, flight options, discounted prices (if applicable) to the user.
This protocol acts as a universal connector between airport systems, airline systems, 3rd party aviation APIs and AI agents. This means that the AI assistant never has access to the airline system directly, it always goes through the MCP layer thus building an additional layer of security. This also means that integrations are quicker and easier with this standard protocol and more consistent.
AI assistants could be of many kinds – a passenger chatbot, a travel agent assistant or a regular operations bot but with MCP, they can communicate with different aviation systems in a standardized manner. MCP servers (acting as backend plugins or tools, are exposed by every aviation backend system.
MCP in Aviation: Pros & cons
In the aviation industry, such an interface is pathbreaking because it affords universal implementation in an ecosystem where data from diverse geographies, airlines, airports, currencies, time zones, etc. has to be accurately and safely ferried from one access point to another. MCP opens doors to new ways of data extraction & pipelining for varied applications right from emergency actions, new bookings, ancillary revenue streams and more.
With the rise of AI in the overall business & operations landscape, MCP will have far reaching impact on speed, simplicity & adaptability of integrations across the stages of pre-booking, booking, pre-travel, travel, post-travel in a passenger’s journey.
However, one word of caution: Even with the buzz, security is a big concern: research papers highlight vulnerabilities in MCP servers (e.g. “tool poisoning” or maintainability issues).
Because it’s so new, industry use is still mostly in technology / AI / enterprise, not yet deeply mature in very traditional industries, although it may change quickly.
22North: Building the world’s best AI-MCP layer for airlines
22North is engaged with building a best-in-class MCP layer for airline partners to simplify and facilitate AI integrations. Using this, airline partners can seamlessly generate images, QR codes or documents, manage conversations and also conduct simple tasks like URL shortening along with regular functions. This ensures scalability of operations and the ability to fetch real-time updated data without the need for referring to training data.
With MCP as an integral part of operations, 22North aims to standardize data, API and tool exchanges. Since it is a low-code flow designer, navigating the setup for various journeys & notifications becomes easy, reliable and easily trackable.
22North. Keep your passengers, crew & ground staff always informed, always assured.
Check our demo for the smoothest, most intuitive conversation flows over WhatsApp.