airportDistance
Calculates great-circle distance, initial bearing, and estimated flight time between two airports. Requires from and to. Requires a premium subscription.
This record as markdown: /tools/com-api-ninjas-mcp/airportdistance.md
What airportDistance does on API Ninjas
AI agents call airportDistance to retrieve information from API Ninjas without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
| Parameter | Type | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
to | string | Yes | Destination airport - IATA (3 chars) or ICAO (4 chars) code. |
from | string | Yes | Origin airport - IATA (3 chars) or ICAO (4 chars) code. |
units | string | — | Distance units. Default is km. |
Parameters from the server's own tool schema.
Why airportDistance is rated Low
Even though airportDistance only reads data, uncontrolled read access leaks sensitive information and racks up API costs: an agent caught in a retry loop can make thousands of calls a minute without anyone noticing.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
The rule that runs airportDistance safely
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and API Ninjas, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For airportDistance, this is the rule to start with:
airportDistance is read-only, so it stays allowed. Everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
The button opens the PolicyLayer dashboard: create your workspace, connect API Ninjas, apply this rule, and every airportDistance call is checked against it from then on.
Questions about airportDistance
Calculates great-circle distance, initial bearing, and estimated flight time between two airports. Requires from and to. Requires a premium subscription. It is categorised as a Read tool in the API Ninjas MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
airportDistance accepts 3 parameters: to, from, units. Required: to, from. The full parameter table on this page comes from the server's own tool schema.
Register the API Ninjas MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for airportDistance: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches API Ninjas. Nothing to install.
airportDistance is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the airportDistance rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for airportDistance. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
airportDistance is provided by the API Ninjas MCP server (https://mcp.api-ninjas.com/mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
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