Airport DuckDB Extension

The Airport extension, developed by Query.Farm, brings Apache Arrow Flight support to DuckDB, enabling DuckDB to query, modify, and store data via Arrow Flight servers.

DuckDB extensions are plugins that expand the core DuckDB engine with new capabilities—Airport empowers DuckDB to connect seamlessly with remote data services using the high-performance Arrow Flight protocol.

For complete details and guides, visit the official documentation at airport.query.farm.

Getting Started

Airport is a DuckDB community extension maintained and supported by Query.Farm.

Install Airport in DuckDB by running:

INSTALL airport FROM community;

Then load it with:

LOAD airport;

What does Airport do for DuckDB?

Airport unlocks capabilities beyond native DuckDB, including:

  • Access to external data sources that DuckDB cannot natively query, including APIs and custom formats via Arrow Flight servers.
  • Ability to add custom remote SQL functions, both scalar and table-returning.
  • Execute User Defined Functions (UDFs) remotely, extending DuckDB’s computational reach.
  • Fine-grained data access controls—filter rows and columns dynamically based on permissions.
  • Enable Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) workflows, securely sharing data streams.

Explore the full features of the extension.

What is Apache Arrow Flight?

Apache Arrow Logo

From the Apache Arrow documentation:

Arrow Flight is a high-performance RPC framework for data services built on Apache Arrow, leveraging gRPC and the Arrow IPC format. It enables fast streaming of Arrow record batches with metadata support and application-specific extensions, optimized to minimize overhead.

How Airport Integrates with DuckDB

Created by Query.Farm in C++ for DuckDB (version 1.3.0+), Airport uses the Apache Arrow libraries to:

  • Allow transparent querying of Arrow Flight servers using DuckDB SQL.
  • Support remote execution of functions and streaming of data in Arrow’s IPC format.

Build Your Own Arrow Flight Server

Looking to develop your own Arrow Flight server for Airport integration?

Check out Query.Farm’s comprehensive Arrow Flight Server guide for best practices and tutorials.

Conference Presentations

Rusty Conover of Query.Farm presented Airport for DuckDB at DuckCon #6: “Airport For DuckDB: Letting DuckDB take flight.”

Watch the full talk here: