What Is a NOTAM and How Pilots Must Read Them Before Every Flight

The FAA requires pilots to review NOTAMs, time-critical notices covering closed runways, navigation aid outages and flight restrictions, before every flight under 14 CFR § 91.103.

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The explainer underscores that NOTAM literacy remains a baseline compliance requirement across operators, reinforcing standardized preflight procedures rather than signaling any regulatory change.

A NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) is a time-critical FAA notice alerting pilots to conditions affecting the National Airspace System, including closed runways, out-of-service navigation aids, temporary flight restrictions, and lighting outages, that have not yet been published on aeronautical charts. Reviewing NOTAMs before every flight is a legal requirement under 14 CFR § 91.103, which obligates the pilot in command to become familiar with all available information before a flight. The FAA briefly renamed the NOTAM from "Notice to Airmen" to "Notice to Air Missions" in December 2021, then reverted to "Notice to Airmen" in February 2025, with the four-letter abbreviation unchanged throughout.

NOTAMs fill the gap between fixed 56-day chart publication cycles and unscheduled events such as runway closures, light failures and airspace restrictions. The FAA's categories include NOTAM (D), covering airport, runway, taxiway, lighting and navigation aid status; FDC NOTAMs, issued by the Flight Data Center for regulatory items such as amended approach procedures and temporary flight restrictions; and Pointer, Military and International NOTAMs for more specialized purposes.

Pilots read a NOTAM through four elements in sequence: the affected location identifier, a keyword naming the category, the specific condition, and the effective start and end times, always expressed in Coordinated Universal Time. Common keywords include RWY, TWY, NAV, OBST, AD, SVC, COM and AIRSPACE. In the example "!HOM 06/012 HOM RWY 04/22 CLSD 2606171200-2606172359," Runway 04/22 at Homer Airport is closed from 1200Z to 2359Z on June 17, 2026. Violating a TFR is a serious FAA enforcement matter, and pilots must check NOTAMs via free official sources, including the FAA NOTAM Search website and a Flight Service preflight briefing, for their entire route of flight, including departure, destination and alternates.