US regulators expect to complete a full transition to a modernised NOTAM system by late spring next year, having deployed the first phase for user testing.
The NOTAM Management Service formally commenced operations on 29 September.
While modernisation of the system has been a continual process which dates back at least to 2012, high-profile failures have spurred a greater urgency.
The country’s NOTAM operational structure has comprised two systems – the older legacy US NOTAM System, which is based on 30-year old software and architecture, and a newer Federal NOTAM System, on which the modernisation is partly founded.
At a Congressional committee meeting in February 2023, then-acting FAA administrator Billy Nolen detailed a NOTAM failure – attributed to unintentional file deletion – which occurred a month earlier, and resulted in a ground stop.
Nolen stated that the FAA expected a significant portion of the modernisation effort, particularly to transition away from the legacy system, to be complete by mid-2025.
“We continue to assess the feasibility of accelerating the current schedule,” he added.
Four months later, NOTAM improvement legislation was passed directing the FAA to upgrade the system immediately.
But hardware failures on motherboards in the US NOTAM System servers triggered further disruption in February and March this year.
At a Congressional hearing in March – focused on the 29 January mid-air collision in Washington – then-acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau testified that the US NOTAM System hardware had been in continuous operation for around 15 years.
While spare server installation and a rapid “hardware swap” process had been developed after the February 2025 event, which helped recovery of the March failure, Rocheleau said the FAA had “pivoted” in August last year to develop an “innovative solution” that took advantage of resilient infrastructure and “high-availability architecture” to complete the NOTAM modernisation effort.
Rocheleau said this new NOTAM service was “on track” for delivery in July and deployment by September 2025.
“This enables the FAA to implement our digitalisation strategy by transitioning from the current legacy NOTAM system to an integrated NOTAM Management Service,” he added.
The 29 September initial deployment “establishes the framework” for the new service, enabling testing and validation with early user adopters, says the FAA.
It adds that the next phase of the NOTAM modernisation will be completed in February 2026 when the new service “fully replaces” the legacy US NOTAM System.
“Full transition will be complete in late spring 2026,” it states.
This transition will involve migration of 12,000 NOTAM users and allow the second part of the current structure – the Federal NOTAM System – to be retired.
Full transition will mean the NOTAM Management Service will become the “single authoritative source” for all NOTAMs, the FAA says.
“We built a brand-new NOTAM service from the ground up in record time,” claims FAA administrator Bryan Bedford. “It is resilient, user-friendly, and scalable, and will significantly improve airspace safety and efficiency.”
