New notam system goes live (behind the scenes) April 18

The FAA plans to shut down the existing back end of the notam distribution system and bring the new system online between midnight and 4 a.m. Eastern time on April 18. The new NOTAM Management Service will, in addition to being more reliable, enable further refinements to how notams are formatted in the future, making the information easier to understand and access.

AOPA and other industry stakeholders have worked closely with the FAA for years to upgrade the aging electronic infrastructure that distributes notams, an effort that accelerated following an eight-hour outage in 2023 that ground the system to a halt and spurred passage of the NOTAM Improvement Act of 2023, which led to the creation of a task force in 2024. AOPA co-chaired one of the five task force subcommittees. The task force ultimately made 42 recommendations to improve notam creation, formatting, distribution, and policy.

As this was happening, the FAA began to work on the infrastructure, developing a new cloud-based system for notam distribution. The new system will continue to serve third-party providers, including electronic flight bag programs that many pilots use to access the information. The new system has been operational since September 29, and tested by key stakeholders including AOPA and EFB providers. The coming changeover and deactivation of the old system is expected to be invisible to pilots and other end users.

“AOPA is thrilled to see this major step forward in notam modernization,” said AOPA Director of Regulatory Affairs Jim McClay. “After many years of struggling with an antiquated system, we now have a true twenty-first-century notam backbone to build upon going forward.”