In July 2017, Air Canada Flight 759 lined up to land at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) - but not on the assigned runway. Instead, the Airbus A320 descended toward a parallel taxiway where four fully loaded aircraft were waiting for departure. At about 60 feet above ground, the crew initiated a go-around avoided a disaster missing  the other aircraft (an A340) by barely 13,5 feet.

One contributing reason: a critical runway-closure NOTAM was buried in the middle of a 27-page briefing, presented in the same block text as dozens minor notices and failing to receive the attention it required.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) later called the briefing system "archaic and poorly designed" - an impossible cognitive load for flight crews worldwide. And this was not an isolated case.

In 2000, around 250.000 NOTAM were issued globally. By 2020, that figure had risen to 1,7 million, with roughly 100.000 more added every year. Still delivered in a format that has barely changed since the 1940s.

The Promise of NOTAM and the Reality Gap

NOTAM never meant to be noise. They are one of the cornerstones of aviation safety: fast, temporary alerts about changes to airports, airspace, navigation aids or procedures. In principle, they ensure that pilots can adjust their planning, avoid hazards and keep flights safe. That is the promise.

The reality, however, is more complicated. Critical information - such as runway closures - is often delivered in the same stream as routine items like grass cutting or minor lighting work. Instead of clarity, crews are confronted with volume.

The Daily Ops Reality

For every flight, the daily reality looks like this: pilots scroll through dozens of NOTAM, all written in ALL CAPS. Critical alerts appear side by side with notices of minor relevance. Issuers, probably focused on legal completeness, tend to follow the principle of "better too much than too little."

The burden of the filtering then fall on the cockpit.

NOTAM Providers and dispatchers try to pre-sort data, but what reaches the crews is still often a flood with little prioritization. Regulators, meanwhile, may see more information as inherently safer. For those who actually use the system, the effect is the opposite: information overload.

Research confirms this is not just pilot's perception. A 2024 study in the CEAS Aeronautical Journal found that NOTAM overload significantly increases the risk of overlooking critical information. An Ops Group survey reported that nearly three out of four pilots had at some point missed an important NOTAM hidden among less relevant ones. Human factors such as expectation bias and fatigue only compound the challenge.

Aviation remains safe, but at a high price: crews spend enormous effort and constant vigilance to manage the information overload.

What's Broken in the System

The weaknesses of the NOTAM system can be grouped into three challenges:

Format. NOTAM still look and feel like 1920s telegram: ALL CAPS, dense abbreviations and sometimes even typos. The structure was built for teletype, not for modern flight operations or digital processing.

Content. The sheer volume is the issue. One NTSB official has gone so far as to call NOTAMs a "pile of garbage". Not because the information is wrong, but because critical items are buried among the irrelevant.

Process. There is no prioritization or usability design in how NOTAMs are delivered. All items are listed in the same format, regardless of urgency or operational impact.

These effects become obvious in real briefings.

Take this real NOTAM briefing package for JFK: a runway closure for 04R/22L appeared final page, hidden between dozens of notices about taxiway lights, obstacles and construction works. Exactly the kind of information crews need to see instantly.

Innovation Potential: Rethinking NOTAM

What if NOTAM worked the way pilots and dispatchers actually think? Imagine opening a briefing and seeing the five most critical items highlighted first. That is the outcome the industry needs.

AI-based sorting/filtering, relevance scoring and smarter visualization are among the tools already being tested by innovator to tackle this global challenge. But technology alone is not enough.

Content quality matters just as much: fewer irrelevant notices, higher data quality and information that reflects operational priorities. The benefit is not automation for its own sake. It is giving pilots and dispatchers clarity, reducing workload and ensuring that critical information stands out when it matters most.

Vision and Conclusion

The future of NOTAM is not more data - it is better data. A system where essential information is instantly visible, where crews see a prioritized, human-friendly briefing instead of endless pages of noise.

ICAO, FAA and industry partner are already working on digital NOTAM and smarter tools, but progress remains slow in this safety-critical environment.

Real change will only happen if the operational voice - pilots, dispatchers and those who use NOTAM every day - is heard clearly.

Aviation is already safe. The challenge is to make it safer, smarter and more sustainable for the people who carry that responsibility on every flight. I have scrolled through hundreds of pages of NOTAMs more times than I can count. We can do better and we should.