NOTAM system
What Is a NOTAM (D)?
A NOTAM (D) — read as Distant, and classified in the current AIM as Domestic — is the airport and facility notice distributed beyond the local area. It is the category that carries almost every closed runway and closed taxiway, along with lighting outages, obstacles, navigation aid failures and works in progress. This page explains what the D means, what these notices cover, and how one reads line by line.
Awareness and training aid only. Always verify with official NOTAM briefings, current charts, approved EFBs, ATC, dispatch, and company procedures before any real operation.
What does the D in NOTAM (D) stand for?
The D is read as Distant. The FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary still defines a NOTAM (D) as a NOTAM given, in addition to local dissemination, distant dissemination beyond the area of responsibility of the Flight Service Station. That is where the expansion comes from. In practice a NOTAM (D) is an airport or facility notice distributed beyond the local area, so that a pilot flying in from anywhere can see it during flight planning. It is the workhorse of the NOTAM system and the category that carries almost every closed runway and closed taxiway you will ever brief.
The FAA does not use a single expansion, so you will meet two words for the same notices. The Aeronautical Information Manual classifies NOTAM information at paragraph 5-1-3 g as Domestic NOTAMs (NOTAM D), Flight Data Center (FDC) NOTAMs, International NOTAMs, or Military NOTAMs. FAA Order JO 7930.2U, the order that governs how NOTAMs are written, defines NOTAM D at paragraph 1-4-6 as a classification of notices and does not expand the letter at all. Distant comes from the Glossary wording above; Domestic is the label the current AIM prints. Both name the same class of notice, and nothing about a notice changes with the word you use. FAA paragraph numbers move between editions, so check the edition in force before you cite one.
The name describes distribution, not geography. It does not mean the notice is about somewhere distant — it means the notice is distributed widely, as opposed to the old Local (L) NOTAMs that were held at the local flight service station.
What does a NOTAM (D) cover?
FAA Order JO 7930.2U defines NOTAM D as the classification of NOTAMs reporting the establishment, condition or change in any aeronautical facility, en route navigational aid, service, procedure or hazard, and in certificated part 139 airports and the civil public-use airports listed in the Chart Supplement (paragraph 1-4-6).
Each of these notices is filed under a keyword that names its subject. The order fixes the list at paragraph 1-2-1 d, and the Aeronautical Information Manual states the rule for pilots at paragraph 5-1-3 g: every NOTAM D carries one of those keywords as the first part of the text after the location identifier. Eight of them carry airport and facility conditions, and the order groups their criteria in a single chapter: RWY, TWY, APRON, AD, OBST, NAV, COM and SVC. The rest of the list covers airspace, routes, charts, data, security and instrument procedures. The keyword system is part of the United States domestic NOTAM format: international NOTAMs are issued in ICAO format, where the subject is carried by a Q code instead.
The keyword tells you what each notice is about, so a long package can be sorted by subject rather than read end to end. It sits after the location identifier, not at the start of the line. It is a way to group a package rather than a reason to skip parts of one: surface closures arrive under RWY, TWY and APRON, a closure of the whole aerodrome under AD, and obstacles and navigation aid outages under OBST and NAV. In practice these notices cover:
| Keyword | Subject | What you will see |
|---|---|---|
RWY | Runways | Closures, displaced thresholds, reduced declared distances, surface condition and works in progress |
TWY | Taxiways | Full or partial closures, restricted wingspan, works in progress, unserviceable centreline lighting |
APRON | Aprons and ramps | Stands out of use, construction equipment, closed gates and access routes |
AD | Aerodrome | Conditions on or within five statute miles of the field that do not belong to one movement area surface: closure of the aerodrome itself, aerodrome services such as fuel, customs and the rescue and firefighting index, helicopter platforms, wind indicators, wildlife hazards |
| No keyword of its own | Lighting | Approach lighting, PAPI and VASI, runway edge and threshold lights out of service. Lighting is filed under the surface it serves, so runway lighting is an RWY notice and taxiway edge or centreline lighting a TWY notice, while lighting that belongs to no single surface goes under AD and pilot-controlled lighting under SVC |
OBST | Obstacles | Cranes, temporary structures and unlit obstructions near the field |
NAV | Navigation aids | ILS, VOR, DME and NDB outages affecting the airport |
COM | Communications | Communication outlets and air-to-ground frequencies commissioned, decommissioned or out of service |
SVC | Services | Tower, approach control, en route centre and flight service station hours or closures, ATIS and automated weather broadcasts, radar services, pilot-controlled lighting |
The order's definition mentions procedures, but the instrument procedure keywords sit in its FDC chapter rather than among the airport and facility ones above. What a NOTAM (D) does not do is change a published procedure. An amended approach minimum or a temporary flight restriction is regulatory and arrives as an FDC NOTAM instead.
Why closed taxiways are NOTAM (D) notices
If you have ever asked which type of NOTAM is issued for a closed taxiway, the answer is a NOTAM (D). A closure is a physical fact about the airport surface, reported by the airport, distributed to everyone who might fly there — which is precisely the definition of the D series.
This is also where the volume lives. A large airport under construction can produce dozens of surface notices in a single package, most of which have nothing to do with your routing. The hard part is not decoding any one of them; it is not missing the one that matters. That is the problem TaxiwayClosed AI is built around: it reads the whole package and marks each closed taxiway and runway with a cross on the airport diagram, so the closures are a picture before they are a reading exercise.
For what the closure looks like on the ground once you are taxiing, see taxiway closure markers and closed runway markings.
A NOTAM (D) decoded line by line
A taxiway closure at Seattle–Tacoma (KSEA), as it appears in a package:
!SEA 08/114 SEA TWY J BTN TWY A AND TWY G CLSD 2608260500-2608291700
Reading it in order:
!SEA— the accountable location, here Seattle–Tacoma.08/114— the notice number: the 114th notice issued at this location in August. NOTAM (D)s are numbered consecutively each month for each accountable location, starting at 001 (FAA Order JO 7930.2U, paragraph 1-4-6).SEA— the location identifier for the affected facility.TWY— the keyword. Every NOTAM (D) carries one as the first part of the text after the location identifier, and this one says the notice is about a taxiway.J BTN TWY A AND TWY G— the subject and its extent. Taxiway J, but only between taxiways A and G. Partial closures are extremely common and the extent is the part most often skimmed.CLSD— closed.2608260500-2608291700— the window in year-month-day-hour-minute UTC: from 26 August 05:00Z until 29 August 17:00Z.
Short, contracted, and entirely physical. This is the kind of notice that becomes a cross on an airport diagram. The shorthand — TWY, BTN, CLSD, WIP — is listed in full on our NOTAM abbreviations page.
NOTAM (D) and Local (L) NOTAMs
Older training material and older exam questions still refer to Local (L) NOTAMs as a separate category covering taxiway closures, ramp conditions and similar local information. That category was folded into NOTAM (D) as part of the modernisation of the United States NOTAM system, so a current briefing will not present L notices separately.
If a question or a textbook offers both, the modern answer is that the information now travels as a NOTAM (D). It is worth knowing the older term exists, because it turns up in study material that has not been revised.
For the full set of categories in current use — D, FDC, pointer, SAA, military and international — see types of NOTAMs.
Frequently asked questions about NOTAM (D)
What does the D stand for in NOTAM (D)?
The D is read as Distant. The FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary defines a NOTAM (D) as a NOTAM given, in addition to local dissemination, distant dissemination beyond the area of responsibility of the Flight Service Station. The Aeronautical Information Manual classifies the same notices as Domestic NOTAMs (NOTAM D), so both words are in current FAA use for one category.
What is a NOTAM (D)?
A NOTAM (D) is the airport and facility category of notice. It reports physical conditions such as closed runways and taxiways, unserviceable lighting, obstacles, navigation aid outages and changes to airport services.
Which type of NOTAM is issued for a closed taxiway?
A closed taxiway is normally issued as a NOTAM (D). A closure is a physical condition at the airport, which is exactly what the D series reports.
What is the difference between a NOTAM (D) and an FDC NOTAM?
A NOTAM (D) describes a physical condition at an airport. An FDC NOTAM is regulatory and changes something in the published or charted record, such as an instrument approach minimum or a temporary flight restriction.
Are Local (L) NOTAMs still used?
No. Local NOTAMs were folded into NOTAM (D) as part of the modernisation of the United States NOTAM system. The term still appears in older training material, but a current briefing will not present them as a separate category.
Does a NOTAM (D) change an approach procedure?
No. Changes to instrument approach procedures, charted data and airspace restrictions are regulatory and are issued as FDC NOTAMs instead.
Always verify with official sources
TaxiwayClosed AI is an awareness and training aid — it is not an official briefing and is never a substitute for one. Before any real flight, pull the current package from official sources such as FAA NOTAM Search, review the procedures in the FAA JO 7930.2 NOTAM order and in SKYbrary, use your approved EFB briefing, and confirm anything unclear with ATC, dispatch, or your CFI.
How this page is written and reviewed
Last reviewed . Written and maintained by the ETWINTECH LTD team that builds TaxiwayClosed AI. Definitions and procedures on this page are checked against FAA publications and SKYbrary; where they differ from anything here, the official source governs. ETWINTECH LTD is not an aviation authority and this page is not official guidance — see our data sources and limitations and safety advice. Spotted an error? Email contact@etwintech.com.
See the closures instead of reading for them
Download TaxiwayClosed AI, load a real NOTAM package, and let the AI pull the NOTAM (D) surface closures out and mark each closed taxiway and runway with a cross on the airport diagram.
Awareness and training aid only. Always verify with official NOTAM briefings, current charts, approved EFBs, ATC, dispatch, and company procedures before any real operation.