Overview

VariFlight MCP Server implements a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that exposes VariFlight flight data, weather, and passenger comfort metrics as modular tools. It is intended for developers building travel apps, operations dashboards, or analytics pipelines that need real‑time flight information, aircraft tracking, short‑term weather, and derived comfort scores.

The server acts as a bridge between your MCP-enabled assistant or agent and the VariFlight APIs. By running the MCP server locally or in your environment, you register a set of tool endpoints that other MCP-aware components can call to enrich responses or power decision logic with authoritative flight and meteorological data.

Features

Real‑time flight search by route, flight number, or itinerary
Transfer/connection options between cities
Passenger comfort / flight happiness metrics
Live aircraft position lookup by registration (anumber)
Short-term (3-day) airport weather forecasts
Itinerary search with price hints for purchasable options
Simple MCP server packaging for use with existing MCP clients

Installation / Configuration

Prerequisites: a VariFlight MCP API key. Request a key at https://mcp.variflight.com.

Add the MCP server to your MCP configuration (example JSON fragment for an assistant runtime that loads mcpServers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "variflight": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@variflight-ai/variflight-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "VARIFLIGHT_API_KEY": "your_api_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Alternatively, run directly with npx (example using environment variable):

export VARIFLIGHT_API_KEY=your_api_key_here
npx -y @variflight-ai/variflight-mcp

The server will register a set of callable tools that MCP clients can invoke. Ensure your MCP runtime can discover and call the server’s tools (consult your MCP host docs for registering external MCP servers).

Available Tools

The MCP server exposes multiple tool methods. Each method accepts a JSON payload and returns structured results.

Summary table

Tool name	Main inputs	Typical output
searchFlightsByDepArr	dep (IATA), arr (IATA), date	List of flights for the route/date
searchFlightsByNumber	fnum, date	Flight schedule & status for a flight number
getFlightTransferInfo	depcity, arrcity, depdate	Transfer/connection options between cities
flightHappinessIndex	fnum, date	Comfort metrics and derived happiness index
getRealtimeLocationByAnum	anum (registration)	Current lat/lon, heading, speed
getFutureWeatherByAirport	airport (IATA)	3-day airport forecast
searchFlightItineraries	depCityCode, arrCityCode, depDate	Purchasable itineraries and price hints

Examples

Search flights by departure/arrival:

await client.callTool("searchFlightsByDepArr", {
  dep: "PEK",
  arr: "SHA",
  date: "2025-04-20"
});

Search by flight number:

await client.callTool("searchFlightsByNumber", {
  fnum: "MU2157",
  date: "2025-04-20"
});

Get flight comfort metrics:

await client.callTool("flightHappinessIndex", {
  fnum: "MU2157",
  date: "2025-04-20"
});

Track an aircraft by registration:

await client.callTool("getRealtimeLocationByAnum", {
  anum: "B2021"
});

Get airport weather:

await client.callTool("getFutureWeatherByAirport", {
  airport: "PEK"
});

Use Cases

Travel app — show up‑to‑date flight options, live tracking, and a short weather forecast on a trip details page. Example: when a user views booking MU2157, call searchFlightsByNumber + flightHappinessIndex to display schedule, status, and comfort score.
Operations dashboard — combine realtime aircraft positions and weather to surface delays or re‑routing candidates. Example: fetch getRealtimeLocationByAnum for a fleet tail and correlate with getFutureWeatherByAirport at destination.
Transfer planning — assist users who need connection routing between cities by calling getFlightTransferInfo to enumerate viable transfer itineraries and layover suggestions.
Pricing & itinerary search — power a fare comparison widget using searchFlightItineraries to retrieve purchasable itineraries and lowest available price hints.
Analytics & reporting — ingest flightHappinessIndex outputs to build historical comfort trend analyses or to drive customer experience improvements.

Resources

Source code & issues: https://github.com/variflight/variflight-mcp
API key / developer portal: https://mcp.variflight.com

License: ISC. Check the repository for version details and the full license text.

VariFlight MCP Server: Flight Info & Comfort Metrics