SMS interface

Imagine you’re on a flight plan from Boondocks Municipal airfield and you’re delayed because there are sheep on the runway. There is nobody at the airfield, you don’t know whom to call and of course your phone does not have 3G data service. What is always available somehow is SMS. For these situations, we’ve designed the SMS interface. The same way, the Telegram messenger can be used to communicate with autorouter.

You can only use the phone you’ve indicated in your profile and the SMS has to transmit your caller ID. Commands are currently always applied to the next flight plan, i.e. the one in “FILED” state with the earliest EOBT.

Available commands

Send a SMS to our interface number +49 157 92340092 with the following format:

  • CANCEL
    This cancels the next flight plan. There is no confirmation request, it will just do it and send you back a message about the result.
  • EOBT HHMM
    Move the next flight plan to the given hours and minute. If it’s after the currently filed EOBT, the flight plan will be delayed. If it’s before, the flight plan will be brought forward. You get a result back via SMS. To move a plan to 7:30am UTC, you could send “EOBT 0730”.
  • WX XXXX
    Replace XXXX with the ICAO ID of your desired airport (e.g. “WX EDDS” for Stuttgart, Germany) and we will send you the latest METAR and TAF.
  • ARRIVAL HHMM
    Send an arrival message for the currently running flight plan. HHMM are hours and minutes in UTC (Zulu) and cannot be in the future and not more than 30 minutes in the past. This command can be used when landing at an uncontrolled aerodrome where the flight plan has to be closed by the pilot. Note that this feature is extremely power and has to be used with care. Make sure the time is correct and be aware that depending on the country of arrival, you might still have to inform AIS or other authorities. You will receive a confirmation via SMS and an email with the arrival time.
  • FREEZE
    This command tells the system that you are not interested in slot improvements (SWM — SIP [Slot Improvement Proposal] Wanted Message). When you get a slot (CTOT) for your flight plan, very often you begin with a rather long delay which improves over time, sometimes the slot even disappears. With this command, you will not receive improvements and the initial slot will stay.
  • UNFREEZE
    A flight plan that was previously configured to not deliver slot improvement messages via the FREEZE command, can be put back into normal mode (RFI — ready for improvement).

Should you need flight plan management assistance (not for filing, only for changing existing flight plans), you can always call the Eurocontrol help desk which is available 24h and free for all users of autorouter. We recommend to keep our SMS gateway number and the Eurocontrol contact numbers in your phonebook.