A woman pilot wearing casual clothes stands in front of a small aircraft, she smiles and holds a tablet device

Aviation Briefing Service - Guidance

Our Aviation Briefing Service provides weather information to pilots to support flight safety. You can access the most comprehensive UK aviation weather forecast and observations via PC, tablet or mobile.

Log in to the Aviation Briefing Service.

Read our Statement of Operational Use.

If you require briefing information for commercial use, please contact [email protected].

Please refer to our user guide for more information on the Aviation Briefing Service.

Cost

The Aviation Briefing Service is free of charge for non-commerical pilots flying within the UK and includes up-to-the-minute forecasts and observations.

Once you've registered for the free version, you can upgrade to Premium for just £57.60 per year, including VAT.

For examples of weather information provided in the Premium version, click on the ticks in the table below.

 

Product Free Version Premium version
Synoptic (surface pressure) charts - 00UTC model run, out to T+84

Synoptic (surface pressure) charts - 12UTC model run, out to T+120  

Low Level Briefing Charts - Forms F215, F214, F414, F415

High level significant weather charts (WAFC)  

Flight level wind and temperature charts  

UK and near Europe TAF and METAR bulletins

Nearby/Recent Location Searches

UK Ballooning Forecasts

UK SIGMETs

"Near Europe" SIGMETs  

UK GAMETs

London CTA helicopter forecasts
Volcanic Ash Advisories (London/Toulouse VAAC)

UK Regional Pressure Settings

Weather Map Viewer

UK observed weather map layers - visible and infrared satellite imagery and lightning, thunderstorms (day and night)

UK high resolution rainfall radar
(every 15 mins)

 
UK high resolution rainfall radar   
(every 5 mins)
 

"Near Europe" rainfall radar  

Europe area satellite imagery  

UK High resolution forecast map layers - Precipitation rate

Forecast map layers - Wind (arrows and fletches), Wind and Temperature, Temperature for range of flight levels

UK High resolution forecast map layers - Precipitation type, Visibility, Total cloud, Cloud layers, Fog  

Aerodrome Warnings email alerts

Change to Premium Service

The Met Office has taken the decision to retire our European weather model.  As a result it has been necessary to cease the following weather map products from the Premium version of the ABS:

  • European forecast precipitation rate & type
  • European forecast surface visibility

We appreciate that you may have found these useful for planning flights across Europe.  Equally the Met Office recognises that our role on behalf of our regulator, the CAA, is to provide a range of products for the UK Flight Information Region.

For weather products outside of the UK, the CAA advice is for pilots to utilise, as necessary company flight planning systems or weather information from the country’s Met service provider that you are flying to. 

We can also confirm that the European weather radar product continues to be available on the briefing service portal covering much of western Europe, as well as other Premium features including the following, all at the price of £57.60 per year, including VAT, which has been held for 6 years:

  • Extended period Synoptic charts
  • High level wind, temperature and significant weather charts
  • Near European SIGMETs
  • Increased resolution (5 minute) weather radar
  • European satellite imagery
  • UK High resolution forecast map layers - Precipitation type, Visibility, Total cloud, Cloud layers, Fog

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0370 900 0100

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Get in touch

Call us

We are available 24/7.

0370 900 0100

Email us

Fill out this short form and we'll get back to you.

Contact Us form

Follow us

Linkedin Twitter