Definition
A service that delivers the current Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) broadcast — airport weather, active runways, approaches in use, and other arrival or departure information — to aircraft as a text message over a data link, instead of (or in addition to) the standard voice radio broadcast. At some locations, D-ATIS also provides a digital voice version transmitted via data link.
Plain English
It is the airport's regular pre-arrival and pre-departure information bulletin, sent to the cockpit as a text message rather than read out over the radio.
Context Anchor
Pilots encounter D-ATIS before departure, before arrival, or during flight planning when checking the latest information for an airport.
Derivation
The 'D' stands for 'Data Link,' meaning the information travels as digital data between a ground station and the aircraft, rather than as a spoken voice transmission. ATIS itself is the long-standing recorded broadcast of airport information.
Why Pilots Care
It reduces radio congestion, gives pilots a permanent text record of the information, and allows automatic updates without manual frequency changes.
Intuition Check
Do not read “terminal” as the airline passenger building. Here it means the airport operating area and nearby airspace.
Example Sentence 1
Before starting the approach briefing, the captain pulled the D-ATIS so the crew could read the current weather and active runway directly from the cockpit display.
Example Sentence 2
D-ATIS was automatically loaded into the aircraft systems as soon as the flight entered the terminal area.