The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is speeding up the upgrade of the aging Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system much sooner than initially planned following recent outages.
On March 21, 2025, the FAA announced plans to launch a new NOTAM service by September 2025. The agency stated that it utilized a “streamlined, innovative vendor challenge” to eliminate bureaucratic delays and expedite this project “as fast as possible”.
“The Notice to Airmen system is deeply outdated and showing serious cracks,” said US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. “NOTAM modernization is the first step as we work to deliver an all-new air traffic control system that makes air travel safer and more efficient.”
The FAA said the modernization will allow “near-real-time data exchange, enabling efficient dataflows and better stakeholder collaboration.”
According to the FAA, the system will be securely stored in the cloud and designed with a scalable and resilient architecture.
The FAA has chosen CGI Federal, a US-based technology company, to assist in updating the NOTAM system and implementing the service. The agency said that CGI is working on a fast-tracked timeline to provide the NOTAM Modernization Service by July 2025.
“Americans deserve the best aviation system in the world,” said Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau. “We worked with the best and brightest and came up with an accelerated approach to bring our technology into the 21st Century.”
In a statement released on April 9, 2025, a group of six US senators requested that the FAA clarify the reasons behind the recent outages and provide an update about the agency’s progress toward implementing an upgraded NOTAM system. The senators noted that the main NOTAM system experienced outages lasting several hours on February 1, 2025, and March 22, 2025.
Initially the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 required the agency to upgrade the NOTAM system and create a backup system by September 2024. Although the backup system was implemented in July 2024, the required upgrade of the primary system is still not completed.
