Can I use the flight booking API to check if a particular flight is operating on a specific date, or do I have to search for all available flights to find out?

You can search for flights on a specific date through the API, but you cannot simply check whether one particular flight exists without running a search. The API works by searching for all available flights between two cities on a given date and returning the results that match your criteria. If you want to know whether a specific flight number is available, you would need to run a search for that route and date, then look through the results to see if that flight appears.

The search results will show you all the flights the system found for that route and date, including the flight numbers, departure and arrival times, and pricing. You can then filter or sort these results however you like before showing them to your customers. Some travel agencies use this approach to build their own custom lists of preferred flights, while others show customers the full set of results and let them choose.

Keep in mind that flight availability changes constantly, and what shows up in a search depends on the suppliers connected to your system and the real-time data they are sending at that moment. A flight might be available one minute and sold out the next, or it might not appear in the search results at all if that particular airline or routing is not included in your setup. You should run a fresh search each time you need current information rather than relying on older results.

Try searching for your route and date through the API to see what flights come back, then check whether the specific flight you are looking for appears in those results.