NOTAMs are returning to their original name.
Originally called Notice to Airmen, the wording was changed in December 2021 to Notice to Air Missions to be “more inclusive of all aviators and missions.”
President Donald Trump’s administration changed the name back in an order released Feb. 10, 2025.
According to the FAA’s website: “Effective immediately, the term Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) is being changed to Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), and the title of FAA Order 7930.2 is being changed to “Notice to Airmen (NOTAM).”
“All directives/publications referring to FAA Order 7930.2 must be updated as soon as practicable to reflect the order’s title,” it continues.
You can read the full order here.
Why not airpersons or airpeople ? And fly over the Gulf of Mexico.
Now that that is done, how about changing Chart Supplement back to A/FD.
How about Notice to Mankind? Mankind refers to all human beings collectively, encompassing the entire human species. It is often used synonymously with humanity or humankind.
In the age of this new technology called the internet where more than half of the aviators who fly anywhere outside their local area have ForeFlight, Garmin Pilot or one of the other efb’s, it’s laughable that Notam’s, TAFs, METARs and all other reports are not issued in plain language.
As far as the subject of this article, changing the NOTAMS from airmen to air missions was just silly. A typical case of “look what we did” governmental deflection to show that yes, we do important work while leaving the important work…like actually fixing the NOTAM system, hanging in the breeze.
Hopefully cleaning the chaff out of government agencies will leave us with people who actually do work.
Why don’t they spend the time and energy doing something useful, like removing the codey language and writing the in common English? Why do we have to be able to read code to get useful information about our mission? Oh, is it because the hardware these systems run on are 1970s vintage main frames? Come on, man!
Good.
Why did they change it the first time? It made absolutely no sense and had no value. I find it hard to believe someone was offended. Oh, wait a minute, someone is always offended! I wonder what the cost is to change the definition back and forth. Another boondoggle!
Welcome to the United States of the Perpetually Offended.
Agreed. And this comes from a woman albeit not a pilot.
The irony: the Biden Administration change came from “the side of the aisle” many of whose members, including several prominent ones, and non-elected appointees, staff, etc., repeatedly expressed extremely negative attitudes (to say the least) toward a particular group (no, not Republicans or conservatives), regardless of those pesky little things called facts, evidence, logic and common sense. There was a definite exclusion from inclusivity.
Why don’t they change it to Notice To Airwomen? It would be just as accurate.
Because the root of the suffix ‘men’ is a reference to human vs. animal, not male sex. The same applies to other terms such as ‘manhole cover’ etc. It’s not a slight to woman. Regards/J