The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is launching a global campaign to improve notices to airmen (Notam) on April 8 with a publicly-accessible kick-off webinar, citing the crushing amount of Notams pilots can receive during flight planning. In fact, ICAO said more than 1.7 million Notams are filed annually, with an average of 35,000 active Notams daily—about 7,000 of which violate international standards because they are more than three months old.
Thus, Phase 1 of ICAO’s new Notam 2021 campaign seeks to improve Notam quality by pushing nations to purge older ones from the system. ICAO defines Notams as being “old” if they exceed three months but are less than one year, and “very old” if they exceed the one-year duration.
To keep track of the campaign’s progress, ICAO is rolling out a NotaMeter, a web-based tool that will provide an estimate of the absolute and relative numbers of current, old, and very old Notams. The tool will allow users to explore the Notam statistics in their country and compare it to ICAO regions or worldwide. ICAO will also hold progress webinars on June 16, August 31, October 28, and December 15.