Smart NOTAMs: What They Are and How Notamify Reads Them Differently

Smart NOTAMs are NOTAMs that software has processed so a pilot or dispatcher can review them faster. Usually that means sorting, filtering, grouping or rewriting them in plain language.

It is not a NOTAM format. The notice is published the same way, and "smart" describes what a product does with it afterwards. Different vendors use the term for different things.

What smart NOTAMs mean today

• Skyguide SmartNOTAM, added to ARINCDirect in 2016, sorts, filters and categorizes NOTAMs so a pilot sees the ones that affect the flight.
• The Jeppesen Smart NOTAMs API adds geo-encoding for visualization to the text responses of its Basic NOTAMs API.
• The Weather Company's Smart NOTAMs, launched in Maverick Dispatch in 2025, group notices by relevance, highlight priority items and present them in plain language.
• Bytron's smart NOTAMs in skybook, announced in 2025, add expand and collapse, mark as read, a FIR corridor filter, keyword filters and pinning.
• ForeFlight ClearNOTAMs, announced in 2026, shows a plain-language summary as the primary text, with automated checks before display.

ForeFlight does not use the word "smart", but it solves the same problem.

These are useful features. A plain-language summary is easier to read than raw NOTAM contractions, and Notamify has offered plain-language interpretations since 2024. We can only judge other tools from their public descriptions, and those descriptions share one assumption: the notice stays the unit you work with. It gets sorted, filtered, pinned or rewritten, but you still review notices one at a time and work out what each one changes for your flight.

Notamify takes a different approach. We split each NOTAM into the objects it affects.

A NOTAM is a statement about objects

A NOTAM says something about a runway, a taxiway, an ILS or a fuel service. We call each of those statements an affected element. One NOTAM can produce several, and twenty NOTAMs about one runway become one runway with twenty reasons attached.

This fuel NOTAM from HAAB shows why the split matters:

A0146/26 NOTAMR A0124/26
Q) HAAA/QFULT/IV/NBO/A/000/999/0858N03847E005
A) HAAB B) 2605050830 C) 2606060900
E) AERODROME FUEL SERVICE LIMITATION:
1.SCHEDULED OPERATORS:REFUELING SERVICE IS AVAILABLE WITH
A MAXIMUM LIMIT OF 20,000 LITERS PER FLIGHT.
2.NON-SCHEDULED OPERATORS AND CHARTER FLIGHTS,JET FUEL IS NOT
AVAILABLE DURING THIS PERIOD.
ALL OPERATORS ARE ADVISED TO PLAN THEIR OPERATION
CHECK TEXT NEW ENDING ADDED DRRRYFYX

Notamify reads it as two elements:

A summary can describe both cases, but it is still one paragraph, and a priority rating covers the whole notice. Neither lets a scheduled airline and a charter operator filter to different answers. Two elements can, because each one has its own effect and its own applicability.

See what changed at an airport

Open an airport and you see what is closed, restricted or unserviceable before you read a single NOTAM. Runways, taxiways, approaches, lighting and services each have their own tab, with counts that show where the disruption is. At a busy airport, closures spread across dozens of notices become one list by designator.

See only what applies to your flight

A runway can be restricted only for aircraft above 36 m wingspan. An aerodrome can be closed except with prior permission. Fuel can be unavailable only to non-scheduled operators. Notamify Profiles compare those limits with your aircraft and operation.

Start from a preset such as Commercial Airline IFR, Business Jet IFR, GA Fixed-Wing VFR or Helicopter HEMS, or build your own. You can then sort matching NOTAMs first or show only the ones that match.

See when and where

Many NOTAMs apply only during certain hours or on certain days. The Affected Element Timeline shows what is affected in each window, so you can check it against your planned departure or arrival instead of working through the schedule text.

On the map, a closed taxiway segment is drawn on that segment. An obstacle described only by its distance and bearing from a threshold appears where the notice puts it.

Get alerted on what matters

Keyword alerts fire on every notice that mentions a runway. Notamify Alerts let you watch for the operational event instead, such as a closed aerodrome or a restricted runway at the airports you monitor. The same elements appear in your flight briefings, and developers get them through the API.

Notamify has interpreted more than four million NOTAMs from thousands of airports.

If you came here looking for smart NOTAMs, this is our version: you see which runway changed, how it changed, and whether it applies to you.

Try Notamify Pro or explore the Affected Elements examples.

Beyond NOTAMs

NOTAMs are one input to a flight. Skymerse, our autopilot for flight operations, monitors conditions, plans flights and processes everything your team would otherwise have to find and review. Sign up for a demo to see how it works for your routes and fleet.