Because Clearly, This Was Aviation’s Biggest Problem

In a significant yet largely symbolic decision, the FAA has decided to revert the NOTAM acronym from "Notice to Air Missions" back to "Notice to Airmen." This change, announced in Notice 7930.114, took immediate effect on February 10.

NOTAMs are used for aviators to get an idea of typical day-to-day operations, potential hazards, or airspace changes at airports. Pilots are required by law to sort through NOTAMs before every flight under the FAA’s regulation for them to become familiar with "all available information concerning that flight" before takeoff.

The FAA under the Biden administration changed NOTAMs from the long-standing “Notice to Airmen” name to "Notice to Air Missions" in 2021. The new term aimed to be more inclusive of both female pilots and drone operators. Whether pilots actually used the “Air Missions” wording or just kept calling them NOTAMs, the function of the alerts was maintained.

Now that the Trump administration has moved in, the 2021 switch has been reverted and NOTAM is back to the “Notice to Airmen” phrase. So, what does this mean for pilots? Practially nothing. NOTAMs are still the same jumble of lingo that pilots must decode to learn about a 60 foot crane 5 miles from a runway.

The change will, however, require edits to countless FAA documents and systems, ensuring that government employees spend valuable time replacing one three-word phrase with another. In the meantime, the technology that crashed the NOTAM system and forced a nationwide ground stop in 2023 remains untouched.

Responses to the change are exactly what one would expect. Some pilots are relieved, believing that aviation never should’ve been used as a political weapon in the first place. Others are just now realizing that NOTAM has stood for “Notice to Air Missions” for the last four years.

At the end of the day, NOTAMs are NOTAMs. They still tell pilots what’s broken, missing, or temporarily a hazard in the national airspace system. Hopefully, this change will finally put the overstretched argument to rest.

FMI: www.faa.gov