FAA reverts to original NOTAM acronym
February 11, 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration has changed the term ‘NOTAM’ from ‘Air Missions’ back to ‘Airmen’, effective immediately. “All directives / publications referring to FAA order 7930.2 must be updated as soon as practicable to reflect the order’s title. FAA order 7930.2 will be updated as quickly as possible to reflect this change,” explained Timothy Arel, chief operating officer of air traffic organization at the FAA.
The move has effectively ‘undone’ the 2021 Biden-era directive which saw the acronym formally changed to ‘Air Missions,’ reflecting a perspective held by some that reliance on the word ‘airmen’ was sexist and outdated. At the time, the FAA said the new acronym was “inclusive of all aviators and missions”.
While some welcomed the move, others regarded it as something of a moot point, believing the term ‘airmen’ to reference any human aviator. Either way, the name change had no operational effect on a system that sees pilots regularly check any recently published NOTAMs that might impact or affect their mission.
US Department of Transport secretary Sean Duffy said the move was “in line with [his] commitment to restoring sanity” to the US DoT – adding that pilot charts will now reference the (contested) ‘Gulf of America’ rather than the ‘Gulf of Mexico’. “Thanks to President Trump, we are taking back our language, our history, and our country,” he concluded.
The FAA defines a NOTAM as “a notice containing information (not known sufficiently in advance to publicise by any other means) concerning the establishment, condition, or change in any component (facility, service, procedure of, or hazard in the National Airspace System) the timely knowledge of which is essential to personnel concerned with flight operations”.
