Definition
A service that delivers the standard ATIS broadcast — current airport weather, active runways, approaches in use, and other essential arrival or departure information — as digital text (and at some locations as a computer-generated voice) rather than relying solely on a controller-recorded voice transmission over a VHF frequency. D-ATIS is delivered through datalink to suitably equipped aircraft and is also available to dispatchers and pilots via the internet at participating airports.
Plain English
It is the same airport information pilots normally listen to before takeoff or landing, but sent as written text through a data connection instead of being heard over the radio.
Context Anchor
Pilots encounter D-ATIS before departure, during arrival planning, or while preparing for an instrument approach at airports that provide the service.
Derivation
The 'D' stands for Digital, signaling that the long-standing ATIS broadcast has been adapted for text and datalink delivery. The rest of the name is unchanged from traditional ATIS, which has been around since the 1960s as a way to keep routine arrival and departure information off busy controller frequencies.
Why Pilots Care
Reduces voice frequency congestion and gives pilots quick, reliable access to essential airport information.
Intuition Check
Terminal does not mean the passenger building here; it means the airport operating area and nearby airspace. D-ATIS is information, not a clearance to taxi, take off, land, or fly an approach.
Example Sentence 1
Before pushback, the first officer pulled up the D-ATIS on the cockpit display and noted that runway 27L was in use with information Bravo current.
Example Sentence 2
The aircraft data link automatically displayed the updated D-ATIS as the flight neared the destination.