Following the adoption of over 3,000 .aero domain names in the first year of its existence by members of the aviation community, SITA has established a .aero initiative that will allow passengers to benefit from simplified access to critical online information regarding their travel arrangements. Currently passengers searching online must navigate through complex web sites and search engines before finding the information specific to their flight. Implementation of ".aero shortcuts", would allow travelers, through the application of existing aviation industry codes in the context of .aero, to benefit from direct, and simple access, to information related to their airline travel.

SITA, the world leader in technology solutions for the air transport community, has completed the first round of consultation with industry players about these "shortcuts". The findings are detailed in a white paper titled "Simplifying Internet communications in the air transport industry", which may be found at www.information.aero.

The white paper outlines the future directions of aviation's own Internet domain ".aero" and spells out the benefits for passengers and the aviation community alike. Beyond simplifying access for passengers, ".aero shortcuts" can be used by business aviation, industry staff and business partners alike to simplify intra-industry communications.

".aero shortcuts" rely on easy passenger recognition of commonly used industry codes. Airport and airline codes are readily recognized by frequent travelers, for example ba.aero for British Airways, and jfk.aero for Kennedy Airport. Already airlines and airports have endorsed the first naming conventions and a number of airlines and airports allow their passengers to access their favorite airline or airport simply by typing their "airlinecode.aero" or "airportcode.aero".

With the exclusive access that aviation has to its own top level domain, application of ".aero shortcuts" aims to provide fast and predictable access to operational information for airlines, airports and suppliers, and to allow immediate access to flight schedules, flight status, parking, ground transportation, or duty free information. For example, a passenger needing to make a flight connection will be able to use their mobile phone to access, within seconds and with one link, the information about their flight simply by typing, for example, nw1234.aero. As another example, passengers will also be able to find parking information by just typing parking.gva.aero on their PDA.

According to SITA's Director Martin Gaskell: "We have been very pleased with the cross industry participation and support for .aero and specifically for this new "shortcut" initiative. Already we have seen web prototypes based on the ".aero shortcut" concept and the interest in developing an operational "pilot" system is high. Given the opportunity to structure .aero, we are seeking increased industry participation in developing this initiaitive."

For more information contact:.aero.enquiries@sita.aero