.fly

Status:	Delegated
Registry Provider:	Google
Type:	Generic
Category:	Commerce
Priority #:	1174 - Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.)
More information:

.fly is a GTLD that was proposed to ICANN's New gTLD Program. The successful applicant is Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.). .fly was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on the 15th September, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the applicant's response to question #18:

"The proposed gTLD will provide the marketplace with direct association with the term, ʺfly.ʺ As of 2011, 90% of travel was researched online versus through a travel agency, accounting for 98 million bookings [Source: http:⁄⁄mashable.com⁄2012⁄02⁄21⁄online-travel-infographic⁄]. In addition, the FAA reported 815 billion miles traveled by airline passengers in 2011, and expects that number to double in the next 20 years [Source: http:⁄⁄www.washingtonpost.com⁄business⁄industries⁄faa-forecasts-high-air-fares-for-most-of-this-decade-while-us-airline-travel-grows⁄2012⁄03⁄08⁄gIQACcjvyR_story.html]. The mission of this gTLD, .fly, is to provide a dedicated domain space in which airlines, travel agencies, and travel re-sellers can enact second-level domains that offer content, products and services related to air travel. Charleston Road Registry expects this content may include but is not limited to branded airline web spaces (airline.fly), discount offerings (sales.fly), and custom frequent flyer services (i.fly, vip.fly). The proposed gTLD will enhance consumer choice by providing new availability in the second-level domain space, creating new layers of organization on the Internet, and signaling the kind of content available in the domain.

..

Charleston Road Registry will make access to Registry Services, including the shared registration system, available to all ICANN-accredited registrars. Domain names within the proposed gTLD will be available to the public for registration and use.

Charleston Road Registry is committed to implementing strong and integrated intellectual property rights protection mechanisms. Doing so is critical to Google’s goals of model Internet citizenship and fostering Internet development, especially in emerging regions. Accordingly, Charleston Road Registry intends to offer a suite of rights protection measures which builds upon ICANNʹs required policies while fulfilling our commitment to encouraging innovation, competition, and choice on the Internet.

Charleston Road Registry reserves the right to impose registrant verification enforcement policies on registrars.

Charleston Road Registry believes that the .fly gTLD will best add value to the gTLD space by limiting registration to only verified airlines, travel agencies and travel resellers. Charleston Road Registry plans to require registrars to confirm that a domain applicant is an authorized seller of airline travel via an established process. If the domain applicant passes the eligibility verification process, only then will the applicant be eligible to apply for a second-level domain in the .fly gTLD. To preserve the integrity of the gTLD, Charleston Road Registry reserves the right to adopt certain monitoring measures, including periodic audits. Charleston Road Registry also reserves the right to adopt enforcement measures, including a request that registrars facilitate a user reporting method to log complaints and⁄or potential instances of misuse within the gTLD. If a registrant is found to be in violation of the terms of the registry-registrar agreement or the registrar-registrant agreement, Charleston Road Registry may request that the appropriate registrar enforce such agreements through penalties, including but not limited to suspension of the domain name."

Community Objection

Fairsearch.org filed a Community Objection against this application, however the applicant prevailed and objection was dismissed on 25 September 2013.

Contract signed

On the 8th May 2014, Google (Charleston Road Registry Inc.) received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .fly after passing the Initial Evaluation.

Delegation

.fly was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on the 15th September, 2014, completing the successful application for the string.