Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but is there a means of getting ATIS for various airports as text via the Internet? I have phone numbers for some of them, but since they are generated (not sure exactly by what agency) as text and then usually rendered with text-to-speech for radio broadcast and telephone, one would think the text would be easily available, but I can’t seem to find it with Google or any aviation portal.
ATIS is useful in interpreting the FlightAware airport maps, if you know the active runway(s), wind conditions, and any important NOTAMs. It occurs to me that if this is not already generally available, perhaps FlightAware might want to take this on. Presumably the information is “free” if it is broadcast without subscription charge on the airwave and by phone.
The above link is active for METAR reports of any airport in the world.
If you click “stations.txt” it gives you a list of every airport alphabetically by “State, Country.” updates are current. If am I correct, all the airports ATIS reports come from here.
It’s pretty cool that it has a list of U.S. Military installations Example:
BAGHDAD KQTZ
NAJAF KQXN
BALAD KQTO
FlightAware includes the latest METAR (and TAF) at the bottom of every airport page. While METARs don’t include everything from the ATIS (like runway in use), you can usually guess based on winds.
Thanks. After I posted I actually found the METAR; someone mentioned that they got it from a mouse-over (of the airport) on their My FlightAware page but that does not seem to work for me.
I’d really love to get the full ATIS, though, with runways and NOTAMs.
There is a difference between METAR and ATIS. A METAR is a weather report for the field that can be generated automatically by an AWOS or manually by a National Weather Service observation station. In either case, the data is available over the internet because it is transmitted in digital form to the NWS computer system.
ATIS data (for a controlled airport) is issued by the tower and is manually recorded voice information of one the controller’s speaking. It is NOT automated (except that the tape constantly loops). It does contain METAR data in it, but the ATIS data itself is NOT transmitted electronically over the internet or any other netowrk so you can’t get it. Don’t forget that METAR data changes only with the hourly observation or when a special METAR weather observation is issued for a significant change. ATIS data may change a LOT more frequently as the tower changes runways in use or any other data they put out in the ATIS in real time…
Bottom line – only way you are ever going to get ATIS data over the internet is if someone is recording or streaming the ATIS radio frequency over the net…it doesn’t exist in digital data form.
In my experience, more than half of airports with ATIS actually do have an automated, digital system that is not recorded by controllers. Of course, this has nothing to do with it being available in a recorded or text form over the internet.
I do not think it is generally the case that there will be an updated ATIS with “special” weather that isn’t available in the METAR for that airport.
There does seem to be a digital feed of ATIS (D-ATIS) available as a product from ARINC, but that appears to be a paid subscription service and only covers a relatively small number of airports.
There’s also a Google link to someone called FLIGHTPROJECT International which is intriguing since it mentions formatting, etc., of ATIS messages, but it apparently is a simulation (?) site and I don’t know if they are talking about live data from real airports, although it sounds like they are.
I just figured that since the ATIS that I am familiar with for the last few years is generated by a text-to-speech synthesizer, it must exist as digital text data somewhere, in which case it should not be hard to put it out on the Internet, but if they are generated individually inside each tower, then it might not be easy to do.
You can get full ATIS/WX AWOS reports for most airports from “http://airnav.com” within USA and territories via phone. Just enter the ICAO of the airport an the phone # is within in “Airport Communications.”
I’m pretty sure you can usually only get ASOS by phone (excluding possibly pay services and a few major airports), which is very similar to ATIS, but not the same. Some large airports don’t even have an ASOS phone number listed. The key difference in the context of this thread (there are others) is that AWOS, ASOS, and METAR give observed weather infomation and sometimes remarks, but none of those give what vorlon was looking for, which was runway and NOTAMs. But there are a handful with ATIS by phone, which DOES have it.
It’s not free anymore. They started subscription-only this past Monday, 2/6/06. Anyway, that’s AWOS, which doesn’t give the information vorlon was looking for.
Second, for those that have them available, has anyone thought about calling the ATIS number at the airport in question, if available?
If the airport in question has it, the phone number is listed in the AF/D; AWOS and ASOS should be available as well, if not at the nearest available airport.
Another thread revival! for the iPhone/iPad - the ATIS App - its free! I just downloaded it and it works! ATIS App
Note: about 75 airports currently have D-ATIS.
