This proposes the adoption of a Top Level Domain for the entire Air Transport Community (ATC), ".air". In this Description of TLD Policies proposal, the definition of ATC is: "All companies and organizations for which the main activity is related to Air Transport."

The ATC includes airlines, aerospace companies, airport authorities and governmental organizations. This TLD will provide a clear and relevant presence and access for air transportation in cyberspace.

The policies that already exist for the airline industry will be applied. These policies have been used for 50 years and have stood the challenge of technology evolution, and time.

The reference documents for these policies are IATA recommended practices 762 (2 letter airline designation) and 763 (3 letter location designators). The recommended practices of ICAO and ACI will be also followed when applicable to naming conventions.

This proposal for the ".air" domain will adopt the considerable amount of policy and procedures that have been agreed by the industry participants, working through Organizations like IATA, ICAO, ACI and SITA, that have already documented naming conventions used consistently in day-to-day business. These rules have evolved over the last 50 years and are a necessary part of communication between the industry participants, both for personal communication and real time host to host interactions.

These conventions have been disrupted by the uncontrolled evolution of ".com" and the benefits to all parts of the ATC of a stable platform have been lost. The advent of ".air" will enable the air-transport industry to re-institute policies appropriate to the new environment that the Internet represents. The introduction of industry specific domain names will enable the industry to enhance the naming conventions and raise the level of automation between systems and people.

Unlike other industries the ATC consists of well-recognized companies, many of whom are government owned, listed on stock exchanges, and which in all cases are required to be licensed, accredited or designated to operate.

These companies will be the only ones eligible for registration in the initial period. The abuse that may occur in an open environment, where any company or person can register for a name, is not an issue within this closed community.

It is pertinent to note that SITA operates a worldwide seamless network in 220 countries and territories for over 700 members all belonging to the air transport industry. SITA’s long established neutrality is recognized by all its customers and members.

The standard TLD string will be: ".air" (dot-Air), ".aer" and ".aero"

Registrants will have the option of a series of names at the second level. This will enable registrants to use the traditional two and three letter company/location codes designators for specific operational purposes, particularly where host-to-host or flight specific transactions are involved. The industry, working through IATA is responsible for allocating and managing these codes. ICAO will provide the airport codes. The ".air" domain will be only attributed to members of the ATC.

Registrants will also be offered a third level-domain as described in the table below, where departmental and functional names will be used.

Given the particular regulatory environment in which the ATC operates, including stringent licensing of operators and registration of equipment, the initial registrars need to be organizations that have intimate knowledge of the airline industry and therefore of the ICAO intergovernmental conventions, as well as IATA policies and procedures.

In other sectors of the ATC, other equally complex set of rules and procedures apply, with cross obligations for understanding many of the airlines industry procedures. For example, airports need to understand the safety aspects of dangerous goods regulations.

It is proposed to use recognized and representative industry associations, such as IATA, ICAO and the ACI as initial registrars for the entities belonging to their prime activities, because this is a continuation of their industry role, and one in which it has recognition and years of successful administration.

As other business opportunities will come up in the ATC, competition among registrars would be encouraged by not restricting the registrars to this initial number of organizations. After the initial period, more registrars would be offered the possibility to deal with registrants for example at national level. 

Generally, the policies for ".air" will comply with the approach that ICANN has developed for protecting intellectual property rights in the existing gTLDs.

The scope of intellectual property is limited by the fact that the ".air" TLD is restricted with pre-screening of pre-existing names and codes that are already in use by the Air transportation community since the last 50 years.

This covers Best Practices for Registrations Authorities, Administrative Procedure Concerning Abusive Domain Name Registration, Exclusions for Famous and Well Known Names, and new gTLDs.

As the answers to the following questions indicate, a number of policies that will be implementing in the ".air" TLD should significantly decrease the potential for infringements of intellectual property rights, particularly because the ".air" domain name space is restricted. The "air" TLD limits the risk of ambiguity and trademark dilution.

The general practice of registering trademarks and the accumulated experience of handling domain names, has resulted in several published revisions of the policy statements which will be followed.  

The ANPG will be responsible to advise registrants of the procedures and responsibilities when registering domain names.

ANPG will hold discussions to ensure a full understanding of domain name conflicts and appropriate ways to minimize these conflicts. The ANPG will provide information on dispute resolution services including mandatory procedures and suspension names policies. It will also consider making available alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. 

The airline industry already has access-security and data privacy protocols and procedures in place to protect commercially confidential, private and safety related data. These rules will continue to apply.

In addition, SITA will undertake to adopt industry best practice to ensure that all confidential data is protected. SITA already works with escrow to safely store its data.

The technical information and contact given by the registrant will be forwarded to the registry and made publicly available. Other information such as billing contact will be private and kept by the registrar.

The following information will be made publicly available for the Whois service: Full domain name, Organization owner name, Organization physical address Administrative contact Technical contact, Name servers (Primary, Secondary), Registrar name and initial registration date, Expiration of registration, Last modification date.

As the initial registrars are industry participants and/or are members of SITA, IATA, ICAO and ACI, transactions between the Registry Operator (RO) and registrars will be made by using industry standard practices and exchange rates.

However, if other entities which are non ATC members become registrars in the future the billing and collection concept will be identical to the current one used for ".com", ".net" and ".org".

The registry charges registrars for registrations and renewals, each domain-year corresponds to the standard fee determined by the RO on a cost-recovery basis.

Registration fees are expected to decrease over time as the number of registrations increases. Package fees will be also implemented for customers as example if airlines wish to register a large number of names in block.

These will be granted with reduced registration fees per names/year and renewals will be a matter of automatic procedures following the industry standard practices.

The rates are included in the Registry Operator document proposal.

Nil.

There will be no differences in the policies during the start-up phase.

As the airline, airports and aerospace names are already registered in the industry databases the initial name rush could be handled using automated procedures for transferring databases. This also applies to the two letter and three letter airline codes, which are already registered. Airlines will register other second level names, but this can be managed in an orderly fashion.

For this new TLD, particular care will be given to the rights of the intellectual property owners during the introduction of the ".air" TLD, in order to avoid the occurrences of abuses as seen in the past for other gTLDs. As the air transport industry will be continuing with current widely known and understood system, the rush for registration will be somewhat more orderly than might otherwise be the case in other industry sectors.

We do not plan to place limitations on the quantity of registrations per registrant.

Rather than using the price to slow the demand, we will give priority to second level domains with already established names, and will deal with new name demands as a second priority. This will ensure that all airlines will be registered with the standard names as quickly as possible and no airline will be disadvantaged by the demands of other participants.

Our expectation is that second level domain will not be in great demand, but third level domains will be.

We do no intend to offer any "sunrise period".

The general public will not be eligible to register. Registrants must be accredited members of the air transport industry. Registrars will start with registration for airlines, airports, and then for the aerospace industry. We will progressively expand the community to other eligible members of the industry.

The intention of the ".air" is to provide a service to the air transport industry and registrants are restricted to legitimate members of the industry.

For example, IBERIA.air will legitimize the Spanish airline in the corresponding air transportation cyberspace to perform business.

In Spain there other companies that have the same name. IBERIA (travel agency) and IBERIA (Insurance company). In such case, IBERIA.air is clear and allows to position IBERIA airlines in the sector. 

The ".air" name is a restricted TLD for the air transportation industry sector. A limited number of exceptions will be constituted for those names that are unknown to the current IATA, ICAO, ACI codes and branding names. The exception names will need to be approved by the Air Name Policy Group.

The Registry will maintain a list of contact persons for each registrant. When a name is requested for registration the corresponding contact points will be advised of the request in order to minimize future dispute problems.

After an initial phase of operation further registrants may be considered if the industry bodies believe that their inclusion is in the best interests of the community.

Registrants wishing to register names will be registered after the evaluation process. At the same time we will register a set of standard third level names which will be proposed or coordinated allowing the standardization of names in the ".air". The purpose of standard names is to facilitate the communications among industry participants, particularly at the host system level. These names are covered in IATA recommended practice 789 and will be updated through the standard committee working groups.

Where appropriate, the registrants will be required to produce evidence that the name is a legal entity.

For the registrars joining after the initial group of ATC registrars, a set of procedures will be explicitly defined.

Registrants already comply with IATA, ICAO, and ACI procedures. The current enforcement process will continue. If registrants do not comply with these requirements they will not be granted a ".air" name.

The current industry processes for appeal will apply.

The air transport industry was the first to develop computerized systems exchanging real time data for the purpose of reservations, check-in, operations and other applications. By requesting to ICANN the creation of ".air", we intend to create a structured, ordered and predictable domain name space. The ".air" TLD will offer the opportunity to identify all the major partners of the industry in a proactive and controlled manner for the benefit of the entire air transportation community.

This ".air" TLD will impact positively the development of e-business solutions between industry partners. It will also improve the visibility and a clear vision of the air transport industry in cyberspace and access to the information offered by the industry and its customers and partners.

The ATC has developed industry standards to communicate between heterogeneous systems and enable industry-wide data exchanges. The advent of the Internet, IP and the adequate naming standards facilitates the integration of the industry to be carried out on a wider scale and to be extended more easily to its partners, suppliers and customers.

Finally, the potential impact of the proposed domain name deserves the recognition of ICANN as a chartered TLD in order to safeguard its open access by this community.

The failure not to adopt an adequate TLD, ".air", would hamper future global network integration, resulting in unnecessary hurdle systems and high costs for the Air-transportation.

Since the 1950s the airlines have used common protocols and naming conventions to facilitate data communications. These standards are even more valid today, as the volumes of messages and transactions double every 6 or 7 years. The industry has achieved a level of co-operation far in advance of any comparable industry.

The ATC partners will be the direct beneficiaries of the ".air".

The air transportation industry has been a leader in global telecommunication, the use of real time systems, and applications for the supply chain, sales and distribution, customer management, service delivery, resource management and the normal administrative processes of major multi national corporations.

Although the present DNS offers wide possibilities, it does not provide the ATC with enough room and guidance to develop the services of the future.

The ".air" will assist to fulfill the ATC requirements.

While the airline industry has embraced Internet based communications, it has not gained all the benefits of having a standard industry naming system. The industry needs to take the best practices from the legacy IT infrastructure and enhance these with the new options the Internet-based technology avails.

This is an industry in which safety and security is paramount. To date this has been achieved via a heavy reliance on the high performance and security of the SITA network. The spread of the Internet technology in an unmanaged manner jeopardizes this security and safety. This industry needs a TLD that it can manage to the same safety and security standards that prevail in the legacy world today.

Dot.Coms do not fully meet present and future air transportation requirements. There are not enough names available today for each company to create a coherent set of names that can preserve the brand image and match the structure of each organization. The Internet requires an enhanced DNS that enables increased capacity, enhances quality of service, and maintains the stability and reliability of the Internet worldwide and "air" will have a role in this.

A well-structured domain name scheme will facilitate interline communications, by helping to easily identify key service addresses. Airline and airport staff, as well as consumers, will be able to rapidly locate any airline's Web site for on-line consultation e.g. reservations, schedules, aircraft, and credit card payments.

The creation and deployment of the ".air" domain will provide greater access to useful and relevant services for the air transportation sector in particular airlines, airports and all other players of this industry sector.

These standards open the opportunity for innovation to automate transactions within the travel industry and to take full advantage of the emerging wap and mobile technologies. It would be beneficial for airport procedures, such as tracing lost luggage, flight reservation, check-in, cancellations, browse related information and access to WAP applications. The ".air" will also allow for increased security when accessing ATC related services and applications by the concerned community.

It is expected that, the ".air" domain name will encourage the deployment of specialized TLDs for other industry sectors.

Some airlines have been unable to obtain their Internet domain names, making it difficult for the public to find them and thus reducing their competitive edge.

The opportunity for airlines to use this new facility to innovate and improve customer service, service recovery, staff productivity, alliance offering and numerous revenue enhancement programs will only be limited by their imagination. 

Our approach is to start with the airlines and airports, for whom there are policies, procedures and naming conventions and a well-established community.

Airlines and airports have a tradition for quality use of the technology and for innovation. This combination will provide an environment within which the proof of the benefits of a ".air" community can be very well tested.

With the introduction of the new TLD the major aspects that will be assessed are the large scale testing of the mapping between the ATC legacy naming conventions and the Internet domain names.

The benefits of naming conventions at the second and third level are already proven. Unfortunately some airlines lost sight of these benefits in the legacy world. The initiation of ".air" will enable the industry to reinstate the naming convention and realize the benefits.

The advent of code sharing, frequent flyer and mega alliances has brought demands for transparent communication that are difficult to obtain in the legacy world while ".air" will not solve all the issues, its existence will certainly help. In addition, in this ATC context we expect a reduced number of ambiguities and disputes.

The proper success of the ".air" TLD need to be measured on the incremental used for related services and application this TLD will help to create in the absence of conflicts much more than by the number of domain names being registered in the next few months.

The ".air" will generate new applications and services and an orderly name space for related businesses.

However, during the first six months period of the initial operation (start up), the number of registrations of second and third level domain and the type of domains registered will need to be carefully monitored.

It is proposed that the results be evaluated through an independent audit conducted six months after the opening of ".air" registration.

This survey will compare the numbers of airlines, airports, and aerospace companies having registered ".air" names to the potential number of names in the air industry sector. At the same time, the quantity of disputes and unresolved disputes will be accounted.

Some adjustments will be performed during this period like increase awareness among the community, increase the number of regional or national registrars, to extend the market to other players that were not included during this period, etc.

The results of the audit will be used for planning the Registry operation, adapting the procedures if deemed necessary, introduce new registrars when appropriate. This will be a trade off between increased competition in registering new entities and the requirements of the air industry for operating in a controlled domain where aspects like safety are concerned.

The air transport industry is continuing the development of its telecommunication infrastructure using the benefits of Internet technologies, in order to better serve its customers.

The domain names play a key role in this area, therefore the ".air" TLD will help the industry in managing this telecommunication development in an efficient and orderly manner.