Notam modernization accelerating
New distribution system expected by fall
Most pilots have dealt with issues or concerns with notams, including confusing content—or the system going down altogether (as happened again for a few hours on March 22). Everyone is more than ready for something better.
Well, there is finally some good news on that front.
AOPA co-chaired one of the five task force subcommittees and, after several months of deliberations, the task force submitted 42 recommendations to Congress, addressing issues including notam creation, format, distribution, and policy.
In parallel with this, the FAA began the process of completely replacing the Federal NOTAM System with a brand-new, cloud-based, commercially operated notam service. Using an accelerated process, the FAA selected a vendor to operate this new service, and the first phases are on track to come online by early fall.
This new service is being built from the ground up as a truly modern, twenty-first-century product, with performance and stability at its core. Its initial rollout should incorporate many of the recommendations from the NOTAM Task Force, while many of the policy recommendations will take more time to implement, becoming available over the next year or two.
Most of the initial changes will occur behind the scenes. The reality is that most pilots now read notams via third-party services that provide some level of "de-coding," rather than presenting them in raw format. This means that most pilots will first see changes as they are rolled out by the flight planning vendors.
However, the improvements scheduled to roll out later this year will provide those vendors with a more reliable service, with more options to improve the presentation of notams.
Subsequent policy changes will enable improvements that are more visible—for example, the criteria for what a notam can contain and notam formatting.
While these will take more time, there is a lot of energy behind this modernization effort. Between the new notam service coming in a few months and the policy improvements to come, we are expecting to finally see some positive steps forward, with more improvements over the next few years than we have seen in decades.
