Arinc and SITA released a detailed set of standards and specifications to enable the adoption of efficient, XML-based business-to-business messaging in the air transport industry (ATI). The standards define a new messaging approach - Type X - making use of XML and Web Services technology to complement existing industry Type B messaging. The standards represent more than a year of development by an industry work group including Amadeus, British Airways, Galileo, Lufthansa Systems, Mercator, Northwest Airlines, Sabre, and Worldspan. The group has worked closely with the IATA XML Task Force, OASIS, and the OpenTravel Alliance to develop an open standards-based specification, complementary to the efforts of these groups.