ACARS
Aircraft Communications
Addressing and Reporting System
Data Elements and Message Examples
INTRODUCTION
ARINC maintains a huge worldwide VHF and HF voice network to provide operational radio communications for
the aircraft industry. They developed a digital data link for commercial and business jets known as ACARS
(Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System). These messages are very structured and there
are nearly 100 standard ACARS message formats and a virtually unlimited number of airline-specific company
formatted message types.
These messages are typically three ways:
Ground to aircraft (uplink);
Aircraft to the ground (downlink);
Ground to ground.
This document outlines the 'downlink standard OOOI message' specification.
ACARS OOOI Message Specification
OOOI messages contain Departure (DEP) report and Arrival (ARR) report. The DEP message contains
actual OUT, actual OFF times. The ARR message contains actual ON and actual IN messages.
ICAO airport codes are sent in the message.
Following is a condensed list of various codes used in the ACARS message:
Standard Message Identifier
AEP POSITION_REPORT_WITH_WEATHER_INFORMATION
AGM MISCELLANEOUS AG MESSAGE
ALR ALERT MESSAGE
ARR ARRIVAL REPORT
DEP DEPARTURE REPORT
DLA FLIGHT DELAY
ETA ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL
GVR GROUND ORIGINATED VOICE REQUEST
POS POSITION REPORT WITHOUT WEATHER INFORMATION
-1-
Text Element Identifier
AD Aerodrome of Concern or Arrival
AN Identifier for Aircraft Registration
DA Aerodrome of Departure
DS Destination Station
DT Communication Service Information
BF Boarded Fuel in gallons unless otherwise indicated
FB Fuel On Board in lbs. unless otherwise indicated
FI Flight Identification
LA ID of officer landing the aircraft
OT, OUT OUT Time
OF, OFF OFF Time
ON ON Time
IN In Time
Actual OUT message consists of the following:
1. TTY header along with message creation time stamp in UTC
2. Departure Report indicator (DEP)
3. Flight Identification Message (FI)
4. Communication Service Information (DT)
Example 1
QU ANPOCJA
.DDLXCXA 010030
DEP
FI JA401/AN CC-AWE/DA SPJC/DS SCEL/OT 0030/FB /BF
DT DDL LIM 010030 M17A
Example 2
DEP
FI HX0112/AN B-LPN/DA VHHH/DS ZSHC/OT 0007/FB 153/DC 2347
-2-
Example 3
???? ?QU ANPOCVH
.DDLXCXA 310019
A80
FI VH8233/AN HK-5221
DT DDL SMR 310019 M57A
- 1001 OUTRP 8233/30 SKSM/SKBO HK-5221
/OUT 0019/FOB 00787/BRD 000000/UNT /TYP
Example 4
???? ?QU ANPOCVV
.DDLXCXA 310002
A80
FI VV758/AN HK-5273
DT DDL LIM 310002 M60A
- 1101 OFFRP 0758/30 SPJC/SPZO HK-5273
/OUT 2340/OFF 0002/FOB 00785/ETA
Actual OFF message consists of the following:
1. TTY header along with message creation time stamp in UTC
2. Departure Report indicator (DEP)
3. Flight Identification Message (FI)
4. Communication Service Information (DT)
Example 1
DEP
FI HX0336/AN B-LHA/DA VHHH/DS ZBAA/OF 0001/FB ---
Example 2
QU ANPOCJA
.DDLXCXA 310004
DEP
FI JA304/AN CC-AWG/DA SCCI/DS SCEL/OF 0004
DT DDL PUQ 310004 M18A
-3-
Actual ON message consist of the following:
1. TTY header along with message creation time stamp in UTC
2. Arrival Report indicator (ARR)
3. Flight Identification Message (FI)
4. Communication Service Information (DT)
Example 1
ARR
FI HX0762/AN B-LGE/DA VTBS/AD VHHH/ON 0028/FB 85
Example 2
QU ANPOCJA
.DDLXCXA 310011
ARR
FI JA4/AN CC-AWD/DA SCEL/AD SCCF/ON 0011
DT DDL CJC 310011 M28A
Example 3
???? ?QU ANPOCVH
.DDLXCXA 290015
A80
FI VH8036/AN HK-5318
DT DDL MTR 290015 M18A
- 1201 ONRP 8036/28 SKRG/SKMR HK-5318
/ON 0015/FOB 00602
Actual IN message consist of the following:
1. TTY header along with message creation time stamp in UTC
2. Arrival Report indicator (ARR)
3. Flight Identification Message (FI)
4. Communication Service Information (DT)
Example 1
ARR
FI HX0762/AN B-LGE/DA VTBS/AD VHHH/IN 0034/FB 85
Example 2
QU ANPOCJA
.DDLXCXA 310000
ARR
FI JA29/AN CC-AWB/DA SCFA/AD SCEL/IN 0000/FB /LA /LR
DT DDL SCL 310000 M29A
-4-
Example 3
???? ?QU ANPOCVV
.DDLXCXA 310007
A80
FI VV749/AN HK-5286
DT DDL LIM 310007 M11A
- 1301 INRP 0749/ SPZO/SPJC HK-5286
/ON 0000/IN 0007/FOB 0038
Example 4
???? ?QU ANPOCVV
.DDLXCXA 290015
A80
FI VV755/AN HK-5277
DT DDL LIM 290015 M51A
- 3501 SUMMRY 0755/28 SPZO/SPJC HK-5277
/OUT 2228/FOB 00655
/OFF 2249/FOB 00635
/ON 2355/FOB 00392
/IN 0005/FOB 00385
/TKO /CRW
/LND /CRW
/APP /RWY /RVR /ALT
/ERR /ERR /ERR
/CPT /FO
/SO1 /SO2
/CHK
FI message processing
The first item in FI message is always the keyword 'FI'. Whitespace separates 'FI' and the carrier code,
flight number.
Key-value pairs start and start with '/'. For example, in the text /DA SCCI/, DA is the aerodrome of
departure and SCCI is the ICAO code of the airport. ICAO code is looked up to get the IATA code of the
airport while processing.
Commonly expected values in FI message are
• FI → carrier code and flight number
• AN → identifier to denote aircraft registration number
• DA → Aerodrome of departure. It usually contains the ICAO code.
• DS → Destination station
• AD → Aerodrome of concern or arrival
• OT → OUT time
• OF → OFF time
• ON → ON time
• IN → IN time
DT message processing
DT message usually follows the DT message.
The first item in DT message is always the keyword 'DT'.
-5-
The second item is likely the ARINC relay station code. This item is not used for processing
The third item is the airport code. If it is a DEP message, it is the departure airport code. If it is an
ARR message, it is the arrival-departure code. There are messages where DEP or ARR is been
sent. In these cases, the time is used to determine if the airport is for departure or arrival. That is,
If OUT/OFF time is present in the message, then the airport code is processed as departure
airport. if ON/IN time is present in the message, then the airport code is processed as arrival
airport. When all four times are present, the airport code is processed as for arrival airport.
Example
QU LTNWR7X
.BKKXCXA 201738
ARR
FI UO614/AN BLCF/DA VHHH/AD RKSI/IN 1737/FB 4/LA /LR
DT BKK ICN 201738 M81A
In the above example, IN time is 1737 from the FI line and 1738 in DT line. In such cases where
there is a discrepancy, the DT time is taken for processing.
ICAO airport codes sent in the message are mapped to IATA airport codes for processing. The
file is located at \\padme\d$\Fv\Ops\Exe\ACARSFeedProcessor\Dat\AirportCodeTranslation.txt
on the test server.
The timestamp in the TTY header is used to do flight matching. This timestamp is used as
departure time for DEP messages and used as an arrival time for ARR messages. Once a match
is found, the timestamp is discarded.
In order to process the ACARS messaged for a particular airline, an entry for the airline must be
present in the file at \\padme\d$\Fv\Ops\Exe\ACARSFeedProcessor\Dat\AirlineInclusion.txt
Watch for flights that are delayed to the next day and flights that depart early in the previous day.
In the following example, 2355Z is the standard schedule departure time and the ACT OUT is
0015.
Example
QU LTNWR7X
.BJSXCXA 210015
DEP
FI UO1600/AN BLPE/DA VHHH/DS RJFF/OT 0015/FB 10/BF
DT BJS HKG 210015 M02A
For the message above, STD = 20th 2355; Act OUT from the message is 0015.
-6-
