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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has made changes to its charts and terminology, including renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. This move aligns with an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump aimed at "Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness." Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced these changes on February 11, as part of his efforts to align the Department of Transportation's policies with Trump's agenda.
Duffy stated that the FAA would revert from using Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM), a gender-neutral term adopted during Joe Biden's presidency, back to Notice to Airmen. He did not elaborate on how this change would impact safety or efficiency within the National Airspace System (NAS), which has faced challenges, including issues with the NOTAM system itself.
The NOTAM system experienced two outages over 12 months, most recently on February 1. The FAA reported that while there were temporary issues with the primary NOTAM system, operations continued without impact due to a backup system. A preliminary review indicated that contract personnel unintentionally deleted files during maintenance work.
