.air
Is .air a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
.air is contested: 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list, as of 7 October 2026. They are XYZ Registry, Identity Digital, GoDaddy Registry, ShortDot and Link Freedom Group. Intercap named .air as a backup string for its .vid application. ICANN deactivated it, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup. Starlight (Namecheap) named .air as a backup string for two of its applications: .lift and .flux. ICANN deactivated those backups, because another applicant applied for the same string or named it as a backup.
Who is applying, and what they run today
Four of the five already run TLDs, 38.53M names between them. One runs one of .air's closest 2012 strings: Identity Digital .energy. Link Freedom Group runs none.
Will names sell?
A pretty dictionary word that suits airlines, air-quality, and breezy lifestyle brands, but no group is likely to treat it as their default.
Last round the AI scored the 2012 strings blind to their fate. Strings it scored 60 or more hold a median 27,168 names today; those under 30, a median of 30. .air’s closest 2012 strings hold .earth 42K, .energy 29K and .fire 2.
The nearest 2012 strings, and how many names each holds today
The closest 2012 string, .earth, held 41,706 names, June 2026. .energy held 28,937; .fire held 2. Chosen by AI from every string in the 2012 round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Same bet: a one-word elemental noun with no single industry that must own it, sold on evocation and breadth rather than to a defined registrant class, so its value depends entirely on convincing buyers that an abstract substance word can carry a primary identity.
Same dual job as .air — a resource/substance noun that also functions as a sector's own shorthand, so the bet is that incumbents who already carry the word in their trading names (energy companies for one, airlines and air-treatment firms for the other) will move their primary identity onto the category word.
Matches on word type — a short elemental noun with an adjacent services vertical (fire safety vs. aviation and air quality) — but the realistic registrant base skews public-sector and service trades rather than the commercial operators who would anchor .air, so the demand story is thinner.
Where they meet elsewhere
Identity Digital and XYZ Registry face each other in 77 contests this round, .air included.
- Identity Digital × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Link Freedom Group
- Identity Digital × GoDaddy Registry
- Link Freedom Group × XYZ Registry
- Identity Digital × Intercap
lifestyle and wellness brands wanting a light, airy name ending; plus aviation-adjacent companies, air-quality and clean-tech startups, and firms whose brand name literally ends in or is the word 'air'
What a .air domain is
.air is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, in our Brand category. 5 applications for it are on ICANN’s Reveal Day list.
Is the .air domain extension real yet?
.air is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. It is a string applicants have put forward in the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, the process that decides whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .air domain?
You can’t yet. A .air name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .air was .earth, delegated on 14 May 2015.
Is .air a real TLD?
Not yet. .air is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because .air is on ICANN’s Reveal Day list of applied-for strings. Every entry on this page links to its source.
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 3 applicants · first recordedICANN
- 2 applicants · now confirmedICANN
- ShortDot · now announced
- ShortDot · first recordedShortDot (Ireland) Limited
- Link Freedom Group · first recordedLink Freedom Group
The source’s 8 linesHide the lines
CEI2660T-T22085 · Capella Exploration, Inc. · replacement string of .flux · Deactivated HEI2661T-T42197 · Hadar Exploration, Inc · replacement string of .lift · Deactivated IRI2679T-T32633 · Intercap Registry Inc. · replacement string of .vid · Deactivated LFGL2683T-T58273 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-10 NA2626T-T48979 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-10 NA2631T-T14658 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-10 VSL2633T-T72232 · Vinyl Strings, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-10 XL2625T-T42443 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-10
The source’s 5 linesHide the lines
LFGL2683T-T58273 · Link Freedom Group Ltd · primary · contention set 2026-10 NA2626T-T48979 · ShortDot (Ireland) Limited · primary · contention set 2026-10 NA2631T-T14658 · Registry Services, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-10 VSL2633T-T72232 · Vinyl Strings, LLC · primary · contention set 2026-10 XL2625T-T42443 · XYZ.COM LLC · primary · contention set 2026-10
“ShortDot (Ireland) Limited has submitted 40 applications to ICANN's 2026 New gTLD Program. The 80 strings shown include applied-for and designated replacement strings across ShortDot's 40 ICANN applications, presented without revealing their status or pairing.”ShortDot (Ireland) Limited
“.air · Lifestyle · “Where ideas have room to grow.””Link Freedom Group
- Band chosen: 30-49 (usable but limited). .air is a short, real English word with positive connotations (openness, freshness, flight), which gives it genuine brandable surface across several verticals: aviation and travel, air-quality and climate tech, wellness and lifestyle, and companies whose names contain the word 'air'. That breadth is also its weakness: no single vertical is likely, within the next 5 years, to converge on .air as its primary-identity default, so it does not reach the 50-69 strong-niche band, where sustained category demand and explained-but-real primary use would be required. It sits above the 10-29 vanity band because demand here is not event-driven or joke-driven; a dictionary word this evocative plausibly draws steady if modest brand registrations and some end-use, by analogy with other attractive-word new gTLDs that settled into moderate volumes without becoming category standards (analogy, not measured data; specific volumes unknown). The aviation-focused sponsored TLD that preceded the new-gTLD era is the closest analogy for the flight vertical, and its adoption is generally regarded as having stayed narrow (analogy; no figures asserted). The applicant, Link Freedom Group, filed more than 300 strings in the 2026 round and published its list ahead of Reveal Day, positioning .air in a 'Lifestyle' category with the tagline 'Where ideas have room to grow.', which suggests a broad open-registration play rather than a vertical-anchored one; a portfolio-style launch typically means adoption depends on retail marketing rather than an anchor industry (inference from positioning). Main market uncertainty: whether the aviation/airline and air-quality verticals treat .air as a serious primary identity or only as a defensive or campaign registration; that determines whether this is a mid-40s brandable or a low-60s niche standard.