Google Flights MCP Server

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A powerful Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for intelligent flight search and travel planning

Features • Quick Start • Installation • Usage • Documentation

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Overview

Transform how you search for flights with AI assistance. This repository contains two independent MCP servers for comprehensive travel planning:

🔵 Google Flights MCP Server

Integrates Google Flights data directly into your AI workflow with natural language searches, intelligent price comparisons, and automated travel planning.

What you can do:

• Search flights with natural language queries
• Compare prices across multiple airports and dates
• Find the cheapest travel dates automatically
• Plan complex multi-city itineraries
• Filter by passengers, cabin class, and preferences

Uses SerpAPI (Google Flights API) as the primary data source with fast-flights as fallback, providing 10 specialized tools, 2 resource endpoints, and 10 smart prompts for comprehensive travel planning.

Data Sources:

• SerpAPI (Primary): Rich data including flight numbers, layovers, carbon emissions, price insights, and multi-seller booking options (250 free searches/month)
• fast-flights (Fallback): Free alternative when SerpAPI quota exhausted or key not configured

🟢 Amadeus MCP Server (NEW!)

Professional-grade travel API integration with 32 comprehensive tools covering flights, hotels, tours, transfers, and market insights.

What you can do:

• Book flights, hotels, and airport transfers
• Search tours and activities worldwide
• AI-powered price analysis and delay predictions
• Real-time flight status and tracking
• Hotel ratings and sentiment analysis
• Market insights and travel trends

See AMADEUS_README.md for complete Amadeus documentation.

📊 Which Server Should You Use?

• Google Flights: Quick flight searches with rich data (flight numbers, layovers, price insights). Get free SerpAPI key for 250 searches/month at serpapi.com/users/sign_up
• Amadeus: Complete bookings, hotels, activities, professional features (requires paid API key)
• Both Together: Maximum coverage and flexibility

See COMPARISON.md for detailed comparison and usage scenarios.

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Quick Start
• Installation
• Configuration
• Usage Examples
• API Reference
• Troubleshooting
• Contributing
• License

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Features

Flight Search Tools (10 Total)

Core Search Tools

Tool	Description	Best For
search_one_way_flights	One-way flights for a specific date	Simple one-way trips
search_round_trip_flights	Round-trip flights with fixed dates	Standard vacation planning
search_round_trips_in_date_range	Flexible date range search	Finding the best deal within a window
get_multi_city_flights	Multi-stop itineraries	Complex trips with multiple destinations

Specialized Search Tools

Tool	Description	Best For
search_direct_flights	Direct flights only (no stops)	Time-sensitive travel, families with kids
search_flights_by_airline	Filter by airline or alliance	Loyalty programs, airline preferences
search_flights_with_max_stops	Control maximum number of stops	Balancing price and convenience

Utility Tools

• get_travel_dates: Calculate travel dates relative to today
• generate_google_flights_url: Create shareable Google Flights search links

MCP Resources

• airports://all - Browse all available airports
• airports://{code} - Get detailed info for specific airports (e.g., airports://LAX)

Smart Prompts

General Travel

• find_best_deal - Comprehensive search strategy to find the absolute cheapest flights
• weekend_getaway - Find the best weekend getaway flights (Fri-Sun or Sat-Mon patterns)
• last_minute_travel - Optimized search for urgent travel needs within the next 2 weeks
• reliable_search_strategy - 🆕 Guide for choosing fetch modes and troubleshooting

Specialized Travel

• business_trip - Business travel focused on schedule convenience and direct flights
• family_vacation - Family-friendly flights with kids (direct flights, reasonable times)
• budget_backpacker - Ultra-budget travel with maximum flexibility (red-eyes, multiple stops)
• loyalty_program_optimizer - Maximize airline miles, points, and elite status benefits
• holiday_peak_travel - Strategic planning for peak holiday seasons (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.)
• long_haul_international - Long-haul international flights prioritizing comfort and value
• stopover_explorer - Turn layovers into mini-adventures with strategic stopovers

Key Capabilities

• Multi-passenger support: Adults, children, lap infants, seat infants
• All cabin classes: Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First
• Flexible filtering: Return only cheapest flights or see all options
• Date intelligence: Search by date ranges, relative dates, or flexible months
• SerpApi Fallback: 🆕 Automatic fallback to SerpApi when scraping fails (optional, requires API key)
• Price context indicators: 🆕 Know if prices are "low", "typical", or "high"
• Native airline filtering: 🆕 Powered by fast-flights 2.2 for reliable results
• Multiple fetch modes: 🆕 Choose reliability vs speed (common/fallback/force-fallback/local/bright-data)
• Token-efficient modes: 🆕 Compact mode (save ~40% tokens)
• Result limiting: 🆕 max_results parameter prevents token overload
• Pagination support: 🆕 offset/limit for progressive data loading
• Error handling: Robust error recovery with helpful suggestions

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Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10 or higher
• An MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, Cline, etc.)

Installation

Option 1: Install from PyPI (Recommended)

The easiest way to use this MCP server is via uvx (recommended) or pip:

# Using uvx (no installation needed, runs in isolated environment)
uvx mcp-server-google-flights

# Or install globally with pip
pip install mcp-server-google-flights

# Or install with pipx for isolated global installation
pipx install mcp-server-google-flights

Note: This package uses fast-flights v2.2 which handles web scraping automatically without requiring local Playwright installation.

Option 2: Install from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/HaroldLeo/google-flights-mcp.git
cd google-flights-mcp

# Create virtual environment
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

# Install in development mode
pip install -e .

Test the Server

# If installed from PyPI
mcp-server-google-flights

# If running from source
python src/mcp_server_google_flights/server.py

The server uses STDIO transport and will wait for MCP client connections.

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Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):

Google Flights Server (Recommended Setup)

With SerpAPI for rich data (250 free searches/month):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-flights": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-google-flights"],
      "env": {
        "SERPAPI_API_KEY": "your_serpapi_key_here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Get your free SerpAPI key: serpapi.com/users/sign_up

Without SerpAPI (Basic Setup)

Falls back to fast-flights (limited data, no flight numbers/layovers):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-flights": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-google-flights"]
    }
  }
}

Both Servers Together (Recommended for Full Coverage)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-flights": {
      "command": "mcp-server-google-flights",
      "env": {
        "SERPAPI_API_KEY": "optional_serpapi_key"
      }
    },
    "amadeus": {
      "command": "mcp-server-amadeus",
      "env": {
        "AMADEUS_CLIENT_ID": "your_amadeus_client_id",
        "AMADEUS_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_amadeus_client_secret",
        "AMADEUS_ENV": "test"
      }
    }
  }
}

If running from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-flights": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/google-flights-mcp/src/mcp_server_google_flights/server.py"]
    },
    "amadeus": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/google-flights-mcp/src/mcp_server_amadeus/server.py"],
      "env": {
        "AMADEUS_CLIENT_ID": "your_client_id",
        "AMADEUS_CLIENT_SECRET": "your_secret",
        "AMADEUS_ENV": "test"
      }
    }
  }
}

Cline (VSCode Extension)

Add to .cline/cline_mcp_settings.json:

If installed via PyPI (uvx/pip):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-flights": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-google-flights"],
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

If running from source:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "google-flights": {
      "command": "/absolute/path/to/.venv/bin/python",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/google-flights-mcp/src/mcp_server_google_flights/server.py"],
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Important: When running from source, use absolute paths for both the Python executable and server script.

Optional: SerpApi Fallback Configuration

This server includes automatic fallback to SerpApi when the primary scraping method fails. This significantly improves reliability and success rates for flight searches.

Benefits of SerpApi Fallback

• Higher Success Rate: API-based access is more reliable than web scraping
• Better Rate Limiting: Avoids Google's anti-scraping restrictions
• Automatic Activation: Only used when fast-flights fails
• Transparent: Results clearly indicate when fallback was used

Setup Instructions

1. Get a SerpApi API Key

   • Sign up at https://serpapi.com
   • Free tier: 250 searches/month
   • Paid plans available for higher volume

2. Configure the API Key in MCP

   Add the env parameter to your MCP configuration:

   Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "google-flights": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["mcp-server-google-flights"],
         "env": {
           "SERPAPI_API_KEY": "your_serpapi_key_here"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

   Cline (.cline/cline_mcp_settings.json):

   {
     "mcpServers": {
       "google-flights": {
         "command": "uvx",
         "args": ["mcp-server-google-flights"],
         "disabled": false,
         "autoApprove": [],
         "env": {
           "SERPAPI_API_KEY": "your_serpapi_key_here"
         }
       }
     }
   }
   

3. Restart your MCP client to apply the changes

How It Works

• The server always tries fast-flights (free scraping) first
• If scraping fails or returns an error, it automatically tries SerpApi
• Results from SerpApi include "data_source": "SerpApi (fallback)" in the response
• If no API key is configured, fallback is disabled and errors are returned normally

Verifying SerpApi is Enabled

Check the server logs when it starts. You should see:

[SerpApi] Fallback enabled with API key

If the API key is not configured, you'll see:

[SerpApi] API key not configured - set SERPAPI_API_KEY env var for fallback support

Verify Installation

After restarting your MCP client, verify the server is connected:

• Claude Desktop: Look for "google-flights" in the MCP servers list
• Cline: Check the MCP status indicator

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Usage Examples

Example 1: Simple Round Trip

You: "Find me round-trip flights from New York to London, leaving July 15 and returning July 25, 2026. I need 2 adults in economy."

The AI will use search_round_trip_flights with:

• Origin: JFK (or search airports if unclear)
• Destination: LHR
• Dates: 2026-07-15 to 2026-07-25
• Passengers: 2 adults
• Seat class: economy

Example 2: Flexible Date Search

You: "I want to visit Tokyo for about a week sometime in March 2026. What are the cheapest dates?"

The AI will use search_round_trips_in_date_range to search the entire month with 6-8 day stays.

Example 3: Multi-City Trip

You: "Plan a trip: San Francisco -> Paris (3 days) -> Rome (4 days) -> back to SF. Starting June 1, 2026."

The AI will use get_multi_city_flights with calculated dates for each segment.

Example 4: Direct Flights Only

You: "Find direct flights from Chicago to Seattle on March 15, 2026."

The AI will use search_direct_flights to filter out any flights with connections.

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API Reference

Flight Search Tools

search_one_way_flights

Search one-way flights for a specific date.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code (e.g., "JFK")
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code (e.g., "LAX")
• date (string, required): Travel date in YYYY-MM-DD format
• adults (integer, default: 1): Number of adult passengers (12+ years)
• children (integer, default: 0): Number of children (2-11 years)
• infants_in_seat (integer, default: 0): Infants with own seat (<2 years)
• infants_on_lap (integer, default: 0): Lap infants (<2 years)
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class (economy, premium_economy, business, first)
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: false): Return only the cheapest flight

Returns: List of flight options with prices, times, airlines, and durations.

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search_round_trip_flights

Search round-trip flights with specific departure and return dates.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code
• departure_date (string, required): Outbound date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• return_date (string, required): Return date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• adults (integer, default: 1): Adult passengers
• children (integer, default: 0): Child passengers
• infants_in_seat (integer, default: 0): Infants with seat
• infants_on_lap (integer, default: 0): Lap infants
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: false): Return only cheapest option

Returns: Round-trip flight combinations with total prices.

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search_round_trips_in_date_range

Search all possible round-trip combinations within a date range.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code
• start_date_str (string, required): Range start date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• end_date_str (string, required): Range end date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• min_stay_days (integer, default: 3): Minimum trip length
• max_stay_days (integer, default: 7): Maximum trip length
• adults (integer, default: 1): Number of adults
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: true): Return only cheapest per combination

Returns: All valid round-trip combinations sorted by price.

Note: Can be resource-intensive for large date ranges.

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get_multi_city_flights

Search complex multi-city itineraries.

Parameters:

• flight_segments (JSON array, required): Array of flight segments

  [
    {"origin": "SFO", "destination": "CDG", "date": "2026-06-01"},
    {"origin": "CDG", "destination": "FCO", "date": "2026-06-05"},
    {"origin": "FCO", "destination": "SFO", "date": "2026-06-10"}
  ]
  

• adults (integer, default: 1): Number of adults
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: false): Return only cheapest option

Returns: Multi-city itinerary options with total prices.

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search_direct_flights

Search for direct flights only (no stops) for one-way or round-trip.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code
• date (string, required): Departure date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• is_round_trip (boolean, default: false): Search round-trip if true
• return_date (string, optional): Return date (required if is_round_trip=true)
• adults (integer, default: 1): Adult passengers
• children (integer, default: 0): Child passengers
• infants_in_seat (integer, default: 0): Infants with seat
• infants_on_lap (integer, default: 0): Lap infants
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: false): Return only cheapest option

Returns: Direct flight options only (no connections).

Example:

{"origin": "SFO", "destination": "JFK", "date": "2025-07-20"}

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search_flights_by_airline

Filter flights by specific airlines or alliances.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code
• date (string, required): Departure date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• airlines (JSON array, required): Airline codes or alliance names
  • Airline codes: ["UA", "AA", "DL"] (2-letter codes)
  • Alliances: ["STAR_ALLIANCE"], ["SKYTEAM"], or ["ONEWORLD"]
• is_round_trip (boolean, default: false): Search round-trip if true
• return_date (string, optional): Return date (required if is_round_trip=true)
• adults (integer, default: 1): Number of adults
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: false): Return only cheapest option

Returns: Flights filtered by specified airlines/alliances.

Example:

{"origin": "SFO", "destination": "JFK", "date": "2025-07-20", "airlines": "[\"UA\", \"AA\"]"}

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search_flights_with_max_stops

Search flights with a maximum number of stops.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code
• date (string, required): Departure date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• max_stops (integer, required): Maximum number of stops (0, 1, or 2)
• is_round_trip (boolean, default: false): Search round-trip if true
• return_date (string, optional): Return date (required if is_round_trip=true)
• adults (integer, default: 1): Number of adults
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class
• return_cheapest_only (boolean, default: false): Return only cheapest option

Returns: Flights with at most the specified number of stops.

Example:

{"origin": "SFO", "destination": "JFK", "date": "2025-07-20", "max_stops": 1}

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Utility Tools

get_travel_dates

Calculate travel dates relative to today.

Parameters:

• days_from_now (integer, default: 30): Days until departure
• trip_length (integer, default: 7): Duration of trip

Returns: Suggested departure and return dates.

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generate_google_flights_url

Create a Google Flights search URL.

Parameters:

• origin (string, required): Departure airport code
• destination (string, required): Arrival airport code
• departure_date (string, required): Departure date (YYYY-MM-DD)
• return_date (string, optional): Return date for round-trips
• adults (integer, default: 1): Number of adults
• children (integer, default: 0): Number of children
• seat_type (string, default: "economy"): Cabin class

Returns: Complete Google Flights URL.

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Resources

Access airport data directly:

airports://all          # List all airports (first 100)
airports://JFK          # Get info for JFK airport
airports://heathrow     # Search by name

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Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Server Not Connecting

Problem: MCP client doesn't show the google-flights server.

Solutions:

1. Verify absolute paths in configuration
2. Check Python executable: which python (Unix) or where python (Windows)
3. Restart MCP client completely
4. Check logs in client's developer console

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401 Authentication Error

Problem: Error message: 401 Result: {"error":"no token provided"} or https://try.playwright.tech/service/control/run 401

Root Cause: Older versions of this package used fetch_mode="fallback" which relied on a remote Playwright service that now requires authentication.

Solution: Update to the latest version of this package. The server now uses fetch_mode="common" which avoids the remote Playwright service entirely, using standard HTTP requests instead.

# Update the package
pip install --upgrade mcp-server-google-flights

# Or if running from source
git pull origin main
pip install -e .

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Flight Search Returns No Results

Possible causes:

• Invalid airport codes
• Dates in the past
• Invalid date format (must be YYYY-MM-DD)
• No flights available for that route/date
• Google Flights rate limiting

Solutions:

1. Verify airport codes exist
2. Check date formatting
3. Try broader date range
4. Wait a few minutes if rate-limited

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Slow Search Performance & Rate Limits

Problem: Searches take a long time or are rejected with rate limit errors.

Explanation: The server scrapes Google Flights in real-time. Some functions make multiple scraping requests and have hard limits to prevent rate limiting and IP blocking:

Rate-Limited Functions:

• search_round_trips_in_date_range - Maximum 30 date combinations
  • Example: 7-day range with 5-7 day stays = ~10-15 requests (OK)
  • Example: 14-day range with no filters = ~105 requests (REJECTED)

Solutions:

• For date range searches:
  • Narrow date ranges (keep under 7-10 days)
  • Use min_stay_days and max_stay_days filters
  • Use return_cheapest_only=true for faster results
  • Split large searches into multiple smaller ones

Why these limits exist: Without them, searches with 100+ requests would take 30+ minutes and get your IP blocked by Google.

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Import Errors

Problem: ModuleNotFoundError when starting server.

Solution:

# Ensure venv is activated
source .venv/bin/activate

# Reinstall dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

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Debug Mode

For troubleshooting, run the server with Python logging:

python -u server.py 2>&1 | tee server.log

Check server.log for detailed error messages.

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how you can help:

Reporting Bugs

Open an issue with:

• Description of the problem
• Steps to reproduce
• Expected vs actual behavior
• Server logs if applicable

Suggesting Features

Open an issue describing:

• The feature you'd like to see
• Use cases and examples
• Why it would be valuable

Pull Requests

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes
4. Test thoroughly
5. Commit with clear messages
6. Push to your fork
7. Open a Pull Request

Development Setup

# Clone your fork
git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/google-flights-mcp.git
cd google-flights-mcp

# Install dev dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt
pip install pytest black ruff

# Run tests
pytest

# Format code
black .
ruff check .

Publishing to PyPI

This package is published to PyPI for easy installation. To publish a new version:

# Install build tools
pip install build twine

# Update version in pyproject.toml and src/mcp_server_google_flights/__init__.py

# Build the package
python -m build

# Upload to TestPyPI (for testing)
python -m twine upload --repository testpypi dist/*

# Upload to PyPI (production)
python -m twine upload dist/*

Note: You need PyPI credentials to publish. Contact the maintainer for access.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

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Acknowledgments

• Built with the Model Context Protocol by Anthropic
• Flight data powered by fast-flights library
• Inspired by the need for better AI-assisted travel planning
• Special thanks to these projects that helped shape this implementation:
  • opspawn/Google-Flights-MCP-Server
  • salamentic/google-flights-mcp

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Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• MCP Documentation: modelcontextprotocol.io
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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