Guidelines for Use of ICAO Messages for Domestic Flights

These guidelines provide key points to remember when filing a Domestic flight plan in accordance with (IAW) FAA Form 7233-4, International Flight Plan. A Domestic Flight is defined as one which departs and lands wholly within domestic U.S. airspace (i.e., the conterminous 48 states, Alaska, Hawaii and/or Puerto Rico), and does not fly through any international or foreign airspace. International airspace includes oceanic airspace controlled by FAA Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) at Oakland, New York and/or Anchorage.

This supplements, but does not replace, information in FAA ICAO Flight Planning Interface Reference Guide, and is consistent with detailed specifications for International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) messages sent to FAA except as noted herein.

ICAO Filed Flight Plan (FPL) Message

FAA Form 7233-4 provides a template to file an FPL message instead of a Domestic flight plan (FP) IAW FAA Form 7233-1, Flight Plan. FPL content can be mapped one-for-one to FP content except the following additional data must be included in an FPL:

Item 8, Field 8a- Flight Rules
Item 8, Field 8b- Type of Flight
Item 9, Field 9c- Wake Turbulence Category

Filing Guidelines for Domestic FPLs

Addressee – Domestic FPLs should be addressed to the departure U.S. ARTCC/Flight Information Region (FIR), only.

NOTE: Continue to address International FPLs to each FIR along the route of flight IAW instructions in ICAO Document 4444.

Item 3, Message Type – An Optional Message Number (Field 3b) can be used to specify a three-letter NADIN address where the filer would like the acknowledgement message sent. Please see Acceptance/Rejection of Domestic ICAO Messages for detailed instructions.

Item 7, Aircraft Identification (ACID) – If the ACID starts with a number, the FPL will be rejected; if this occurs, contact Flight Data at the ARTCC to which the flight plan was sent to institute a procedural work-around. FAA is working to adapt automation for this situation.

Item 8, Field 8a, Flight Rules – IAW FAAO 7110.10, Appendix A, ICAO Flight Plans, Item 8: insert one of the following:

"I" for Instrument Flight Rules (IFR); or
"V" for Visual Flight Rules (VFR).

Item 8, Field 8b, Type of Flight – IAW FAAO 7110.10, insert one of the following:

"S" for scheduled air service;
"N" for non-scheduled air transport operation;
"G" for general aviation;
"M" for military; or
"X" for other than any of the above categories.

Item 9, Field 9c, Wake Turbulence Category (WTC) – WTC information is required in an FPL; consult ICAO Document 8643 if you do not know the approved ICAO WTC for your aircraft. The ICAO WTC categories are:

"H" for Heavy – Greater than 300,000 lbs. maximum certificated take-off weight
"M" for Medium – Between 15,000 and 300,000 lbs. maximum certificated take-off weight
"L" for Light – Less than 15,000 lbs. maximum certificated take-off weight

Items 13 & 16, Departure & Destination Aerodrome – File a four-letter location identifier (LOCID) whenever available, as described in FAA Order (FAAO) 7350.7, Location Identifiers, Section 1.4.1.

Convert a three-letter LOCID by prepending a “K” (e.g., the four-letter LOCID for Montgomery County Airpark/GAI is “K” + “GAI” = “KGAI”); or
If the LOCID contains a number, no LOCID is assigned or the LOCID is not known:

Item 13 – Insert “ZZZZ”, and
Item 18 – Provide the name of the airport as follows:

Insert “DEP/” followed by the name of the departure airport (e.g., “DEP/MD21”), and/or
Insert “DEST/” followed by the name of the destination airport (e.g., “DEST/MD21”).

Item 15, Field 15b, Level – The following non-ICAO altitude formats are permissible entries in Field 15b for Domestic Flights, only:

OTP (VFR on Top) – “OTP/” followed by the OTP altitude (e.g., “OTP/120”)
VFR ( Visual Flight Rules) – “VFR/” followed by the VFR altitude (e.g., “VFR/085”)
ABV (Above an Altitude) – “ABV/” followed by the ABV altitude (e.g., “ABV/330”)
Block Altitude – in the format “dddBddd” where the 1st “ddd” is the lower altitude of the block and the 2nd “ddd” is the higher altitude of the block (e.g., “210B290”)

NOTE: Do not use these formats in an International FPL.

Item 15, Field 15c, Route – The following non-ICAO route elements are permissible in Field 15c for Domestic Flights, only:

Most U.S. domestic DPs have a coded designator published in a Terminal Procedure Publication. Include the coded designator, if one exists, as the first element in Field 15c.
The following non-ICAO route elements are permissible in Field 15c for Domestic Flights, only:

Delay at a fix (e.g., KORRY/D0+25)
Coded Route Re-entry Indicator (e.g., IR107+R1)

NOTE: Do not use these formats in an International FPL.

FAA accepts a different Latitude/Longitude format for non-ICAO domestic flight plans (e.g., ddN/dddW, dd/ddd). Do not use that format in an FPL.

Item 18, Other Information –

ERAS does not require EET/ data in Item 18 of an ICAO FPL for the portion of the route in U.S. domestic airspace. The FPL will not be rejected; however, ERAS will not process EET/ data if filed. Updated 1/15/08
ERAS will reject an ICAO FPL which has “EET/” in Item 18 with no trailing data string. Updated 1/15/08

NOTE: If your filing system automatically inserts “EET/”, please contact us to discuss mitigating this issue by inserting a trailing data string which will work for your system (e.g., “EET/NONE”). ERAS will not process the data string you enter; however, we will test the suggested data string to ensure your FPLs are accepted.

No data is required in Item 18 of a Domestic FPL. If there is no information, insert “-0” (single hyphen with a zero) IAW ICAO Doc 4444 (see 1st FPL example, below).
Any Item 18 data permitted by ICAO Doc 4444 will be accepted. The most commonly used information is:

"RMK/" followed by any remarks that would be filed in Field 11 of FAA Form 7233-1 after the clear weather symbol, including, but not limited to, remarks such as "NRP", "DVRSN" and "PTP".
"IRMK/" followed by any remarks that would be filed in Field 11 of FAA Form 7233-1after the overcast weather symbol, including, but not limited to, remarks such as "FRC".
"NAV/" followed by data IAW Filing Requirements for Assignment of RNAV Routes.

Other than as the Start-of-Field signal for Item 18, do not use dashes as part of any Item 18 data.

FP/FPL Comparison Example: Simple FPL with Minimum Required Information & No Remarks

Domestic FP IAW FAA Form 7233-1:
FF KZJXZRZX
232352 KGAITTTD
TTT2352230 FP TTT001 B722/W 475 TLH P0310 340
TLH..SZW.J41.VUZ.HLI1.MEM/0101

Equivalent FPL IAW FAA Form 7233-4:
FF KZJXZRZX
232352 KGAITTTD
(FPL-TTT001-IS
-B722/M-SW/C
-KTLH0310
-N0475F340 DCT SZW J41 VUZ HLI1
-KMEM0101
-0)

FP/FPL Comparison Example: FPL with Optional Message Number (Field 3b) & Remarks (RMK)

Domestic FP IAW FAA Form 7233-1:
FF KZJXZRZX
231110 KTULTTTD
TTT1110010 FP TTT002 A320/J 0463 MCO P1225 360
MCO..CTY..SZW..MCB..UIM..TXO..ABQ..PGS.TYSSN1.LAS/0412 :NRP

Equivalent FPL IAW FAA Form 7233-4:
FF KZJXZRZX
231110 KTULTTTD
(FPLTTT/KZJX010-TTT002-IS
-A320/J-SDIW/C
-KMCO1225
-K0463F360 DCT CTY DCT SZW DCT MCB DCT UIM DCT TXO DCT ABQ DCT PGS
TYSSN1
-KLAS0412
-RMK/NRP)

Filing Guidelines for Change (CHG), Delay (DLA) & Cancellation (CNL) Messages

Filing guidelines for CHG, DLA and CNL messages can be found at FAA ICAO Flight Planning Interface Reference Guide.

Guidelines for receipt of automatic acknowledgement (ACK) and/or rejection (REJ) messages for ICAO compatible messages can be found at Acceptance/Rejection of Domestic ICAO Messages. The link includes examples of ACK, CNL, CHG, DLA and REJ messages, and a chart outlining REJ error messages, their causes and suggested resolutions.