NOTAM Decoder
Authentic-format NOTAMs decoded field by field — the FAA's own examples, labelled training examples and your own text — with the validity at your planned time and an airport sketch for runway closures; live NOTAMs are not connected yet.
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Choose an example or paste a NOTAM. The decoder reads it the way the FAA's NOTAM order builds it: the exclamation mark, the accountability and the NOTAM number, the location, the keyword (RWY, TWY, APRON, AD, OBST, NAV, COM, SVC, AIRSPACE, the procedure keywords …), the surface or facility, the condition, any schedule, and the start of activity and end of validity in UTC — or, for an ICAO-format NOTAM, the series and number, the Q) line and the fields A) to G). Each field and each contraction is explained with where the rule is.
Set your planned time — type it, step it an hour at a time, or drag the cyan marker on the time line — and the page says whether the NOTAM is in effect then: not yet, in effect, outside its schedule (a daily closure, for example) or ended. An estimated end (EST) means the NOTAM may be cancelled earlier; PERM means it lasts until the change is published. For a runway NOTAM at one of twenty large U.S. airports a sketch shows the runway closed (an X at each end), its first part closed, or closed to a class of aircraft.
The examples are the FAA's own — the AIM's example for each keyword and the NOTAM order's ICAO-format example with its domestic twin — with the times filled in where the FAA prints YYMMDDHHMM, plus constructed examples in the same format at airports the site has runway data for. Practice asks for the keyword, a contraction, the end of validity and whether the NOTAM is in effect at a given time.
Assumption and limits: educational use only. No live NOTAMs: the examples are not current NOTAMs, the constructed ones were not issued by the FAA, and pasted text is decoded as written without any check that it is current or complete. Words the tool does not list are shown as written. The airport sketch is schematic — runway directions and lengths from the FAA data of cycle 2610 (not current after 29 October 2026), not their positions — and not for navigation. Before flight, get the current NOTAMs from the FAA's NOTAM Search (notams.aim.faa.gov; the FAA is replacing it with its NOTAM Management Service) or a Flight Service briefing.
The NOTAM format is FAA Order JO 7930.2U, Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), with Change 2 (effective 30 September 2026): 1-2-1 d (the twenty keywords and what each covers), 1-4-6 (definitions: NOTAM D numbered each month from 001 per accountability location, e.g. DAY 01/001; FDC NOTAMs numbered from 0001 each year, e.g. Y/1323; international NOTAMs by series), 4-2-1 (NOTAM composition: the exclamation mark, accountability, the location after the NOTAM number, the keyword, the surface designator, the condition with TO or EXC, limits in feet MSL unless AGL and flight levels from 18,000 ft, the schedule, the ten-digit start of activity and end of validity, EST and PERM), 5-1-3 and Appendix A (movement-area examples), 8-1-2 and TBL 8-1-1 (the ICAO format: series and number, NOTAMN / NOTAMR / NOTAMC, the Q) line, A) to G)), Appendix B (the Q codes). The AIM (effective 9 July 2026) 5-1-3 describes the NOTAM system, the keywords with an example each, the ICAO fields A to G, and lists the contractions commonly found in NOTAMs; each contraction is shown with its meaning in FAA Order JO 7340.2P, Contractions.
Not decoded, on purpose: the FAA's table of the ICAO format names the traffic (I, V), purpose (N, B, O, M, K) and scope (A, E, W) letters, the lower and upper limits and the radius of the Q) line without defining them, so they are shown as printed. A schedule the decoder cannot read is said to be not decoded rather than guessed. The FAA plans to replace the domestic format with the ICAO format after its new NOTAM Management Service is in place (FAA NOTAM modernization pages, read 17 October 2026); both formats are decoded here.
Live NOTAMs are not connected in this version: every NOTAM on this page is an example or your own text, never a current NOTAM. For a flight, get the current NOTAMs from the FAA's NOTAM Search (notams.aim.faa.gov — the FAA is replacing its legacy NOTAM systems with the NOTAM Management Service, NMS, and expects the transition to complete in 2026) or a Flight Service briefing (AIM 5-1-3). If live NOTAMs are added later, they will reach this page through the site's own server — never directly from the browser — and carry the LIVE or CACHED COPY label, source and times like the METAR Decoder.
- FAA Order JO 7930.2U, Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), with Change 2 (effective 30 September 2026): 1-2-1 d (keywords), 1-4-6 (definitions: NOTAM D, FDC and international NOTAM numbering), 4-2-1 (NOTAM composition: accountability, location, keyword, surface designator, condition, limits, schedule, start of activity and end of validity, EST, PERM), 5-1-3 and Appendix A (movement-area examples), 8-1-2 and TBL 8-1-1 (the ICAO NOTAM format), Appendix B (International NOTAM (Q) Codes)
- Aeronautical Information Manual (effective 9 July 2026) 5-1-3 (the NOTAM system: NOTAM classes, keywords with an example each, the ICAO fields A to G, the contractions commonly found in NOTAMs)
- FAA Order JO 7340.2P, Contractions (effective 9 July 2026), chapter 2 section 1 (the meanings of the NOTAM contractions)
- FAA NOTAM Management Service pages (faa.gov, NOTAM modernization and NMS frequently asked questions, read 17 October 2026): access to the NMS-API on request; the ICAO format to replace the domestic format after the NMS transition
- FAA Coded Instrument Flight Procedures and digital Terminal Procedures Publication, cycle 2610 (1 to 29 October 2026): runway directions and lengths of the airports in the sketch (training data, not current after the cycle)
- Model choices of this tool (stated on the page): the FAA examples with their YYMMDDHHMM placeholders filled in, constructed examples in the FAA format at airports with runway data, the colours, the schematic airport sketch, the plain-English word list, practice questions; no live retrieval in this version