Introduced March 17, 2002 | Status Active | |
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Registry SITA INC B.V. (Registry agreement ends in December, 2005 and new registry operator is being sought) Sponsor SITA SC; a Dot Aero Council was formed to take input from community; various industry associations have partner status Intended use Airlines, airports, and other parts of the air-travel industry Similar .edu , .gov , .info | ||
.aero (derived from aeronautics) is a Sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) used in the Domain Name System of the Internet. It is the first sponsored top-level domain based on a single industrial theme. The aero domain is reserved for companies, organizations, associations, government agencies, and individuals in aerospace-related fields. It was created in 2002 and is operated by SITA. SITA created and operates the Dot Aero Council.
Two-letter codes under .aero are reserved for airlines according to the IATA Airline Designators. While three-letter codes were initially reserved for airports (IATA airport code), they were released for registration by the larger aviation and aerospace community on December 1, 2008.
The aero top-level domain was initially approved in 2001 for a 5-year term expiring December 17, 2006 as part of a proof-of-concept of new top-level domains. The agreement was extended in October 2006 for a six-month term until June 17, 2007, and continued to be renewed on a June–December six-month cycle through June 17, 2009. In 2009, SITA and ICANN completed a new 10-year sponsorship agreement for the operation of aero.