As .aero has developed, the awareness of airport three letter location identifiers as shortcuts for pilots, travelers and other industry professionals has also increased.

Current .aero registration policy allows the reservation and registration of IATA-assigned location identifiers for this purpose but most airports in the US know the code as their three letter location identifiers as assigned by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) – and these are not always the same as the IATA codes.

Current registration rules in .aero domain do not contain any special provision for registration of FAA assigned 3- and 4- character location codes. Registration is allowed on a first come first served basis to
any applicant if the name is available and does not conflict with any other rule currently in place.

SITA, as sponsor of .aero, receives many requests for registration of FAA location identifiers. Some of these requests have been accommodated in the past since the IATA location code was the same as the FAA assigned code or because the FAA assigned code did not match any reserved name and was available for registration on a first come first served basis.

However, existing rules prevent 49 percent of FAA assigned three character codes from registration and there have been individual registration requests that could not be satisfied.

After frequent requests from airports in North America for the registration of a domain name that matches their assigned FAA code, SITA and the Dot Aero Council are currently reviewing whether to allow registration of FAA location codes, using "end-user convenience" as the guiding principle for policy change.

Depending on the outcome of the policy decision, FAA airports may be able to register on an individual basis in the near future, using FAA assigned codes. News of the outcome of this policy decision will be posted on the .aero website on our registration page, visit this space regularly.