FAA to Deploy New Pilot Messaging Database System by Sept.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it plans to deploy a new pilot messaging database by September after a series of outages have raised safety concerns.

The FAA said it had selected CGI Federal to work on modernizing the "Notice to Airmen" system that provides pilots, flight crews and others with critical safety notices about U.S. airspace. In January 2023, the failure of the NOTAM system disrupted more than 11,000 flights in the first nationwide U.S. ground stop since 2001.

The NOTAM system most recently failed on March 22 for more than three hours due to a hardware issue. The system also had an outage on Feb. 1.

CGI plans to deliver the NOTAM Modernization Service by July and the FAA is targeting deployment by September.

The value of the contract was not immediately disclosed by the FAA. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association's president, Nick Daniels, told Congress in March that the NOTAM system will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to replace.

"At minimum, the FAA will need $154 million just to conduct further research on a replacement NOTAM system, but will need $354 million to replace the broken NOTAM system," Daniels said.

Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of six U.S. lawmakers, led by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., noted that Congress passed legislation requiring the FAA to implement a modernized NOTAM system and backup system by September 2024 — a deadline now missed.

NOTAMs detail temporary changes such as runway closures, airspace restrictions, taxiway light status and obstructions to pilots and flight planners. More than 4 million NOTAMs are issued annually, the FAA said.

Last month, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he planned to ask Congress for tens of billions of dollars for a multiyear effort to revamp FAA air traffic control infrastructure and boost hiring for the understaffed agency. Duffy said Monday that the NOTAM system "is deeply outdated and showing serious cracks."

The modernization will provide near real-time data exchange securely hosted in the cloud.