Airflow: 2.11.0 Release

Significant Changes

DeltaTriggerTimetable for trigger-based scheduling (#47074)

This change introduces DeltaTriggerTimetable, a new built-in timetable that complements the existing suite of Airflow timetables by supporting delta-based trigger schedules without relying on data intervals.

Airflow currently has two major types of timetables:

• Data interval-based (e.g., CronDataIntervalTimetable, DeltaDataIntervalTimetable)
• Trigger-based (e.g., CronTriggerTimetable)

However, there was no equivalent trigger-based option for delta intervals like timedelta(days=1). As a result, even simple schedules like schedule=timedelta(days=1) were interpreted through a data interval lens—adding unnecessary complexity for users who don't care about upstream/downstream data dependencies.

This feature is backported to Airflow 2.11.0 to help users begin transitioning before upgrading to Airflow 3.0.

• In Airflow 2.11, schedule=timedelta(...) still defaults to DeltaDataIntervalTimetable.
• A new config option [scheduler] create_delta_data_intervals (default: True) allows opting in to DeltaTriggerTimetable.
• In Airflow 3.0, this config defaults to False, meaning DeltaTriggerTimetable becomes the default for timedelta schedules.

By flipping this config in 2.11, users can preview and adopt the new scheduling behavior in advance — minimizing surprises during upgrade.

Consistent timing metrics across all backends (#39908, #43966)

Previously, Airflow reported timing metrics in milliseconds for StatsD but in seconds for other backends such as OpenTelemetry and Datadog. This inconsistency made it difficult to interpret or compare timing metrics across systems.

Airflow 2.11 introduces a new config option:

• [metrics] timer_unit_consistency (default: False in 2.11, True and dropped in Airflow 3.0).

When enabled, all timing metrics are consistently reported in milliseconds, regardless of the backend.

This setting has become mandatory and always True in Airflow 3.0 (the config will be removed), so enabling it in 2.11 allows users to migrate early and avoid surprises during upgrade.

Ease migration to Airflow 3

This release introduces several changes to help users prepare for upgrading to Airflow 3:

• All models using execution_date now also include a logical_date field. Airflow 3 drops execution_date entirely in favor of logical_date (#44283)
• Added airflow config lint and airflow config update commands in 2.11 to help audit and migrate configs for Airflow 3.0. (#45736, #50353, #46757)

Python 3.8 support removed

Support for Python 3.8 has been removed, as it has reached end-of-life. Airflow 2.11 requires Python 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, or 3.12.

New Features

• Introduce DeltaTriggerTimetable (#47074)
• Backport airflow config update and airflow config lint changes to ease migration to Airflow 3 (#45736, #50353)
• Add link to show task in a DAG in DAG Dependencies view (#47721)
• Align timers and timing metrics (ms) across all metrics loggers (#39908, #43966)

Bug Fixes

• Don't resolve path for DAGs folder (#46877)
• Fix ti.log_url timestamp format from "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S%z" to "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f%z" (#50306)
• Ensure that the generated airflow.cfg contains a random fernet_key and secret_key (#47755)
• Fixed setting rendered_map_index via internal api (#49057)
• Store rendered_map_index from TaskInstancePydantic into TaskInstance (#48571)
• Allow using log_url property on TaskInstancePydantic (Internal API) (#50560)
• Fix Trigger Form with Empty Object Default (#46872)
• Fix TypeError when deserializing task with execution_timeout set to None (#46822)
• Always populate mapped tasks (#46790)
• Ensure check_query_exists returns a bool (#46707)
• UI: /xcom/list got exception when applying filter on the value column (#46053)
• Allow to set note field via the experimental internal api (#47769)

Miscellaneous

• Add logical_date to models using execution_date (#44283)
• Drop support for Python 3.8 (#49980, #50015)
• Emit warning for deprecated BaseOperatorLink.get_link signature (#46448)

Doc Only Changes

• Unquote executor airflow.cfg variable (#48084)
• Update XCom docs to show examples of pushing multiple XComs (#46284, #47068)