Pilots, Air Traffic Controllers Shifting To Text Messaging

Airline pilots and air traffic controllers are on schedule to switch to text communications at most of the nation’s busiest airports by the end of the year, a milestone that holds the potential to reduce delays, prevent errors and save billions of dollars in fuel cost, says the Federal Aviation Administration.

Controllers and pilots will still use their radios for quick exchanges like clearance for takeoff and in emergencies and situations where time is critical. But the nation’s air traffic system is gradually shifting to text messages for a majority of flying instructions.

That’s a big advantage, say government and industry officials, because up until now longer and more complicated instructions like a route change for pilots of planes waiting to take off are communicated verbally, with each word laboriously spelled out in the radio alphabet.

For example, HARD becomes “Hotel Alfa Romeo Delta.” And it is hard to get it right. Pilots have to write down the directions as the controller reads them - then they read them back, also spelling out each word. If there is a mistake, the controller reads the directions back to the pilot again the same way, and so on. Even when there are no mistakes, the process can eat up valuable minutes.

If controllers want to reroute planes around a thunderstorm, they have to contact each plane by radio to relay instructions individually. With dozens of planes waiting for their turn to get instructions, the process can take 30 minutes or longer.