The Civil Aviation Department has started operating a new global high-speed aviation intranet service using the Air Traffic Services Message Handling System in accordance with the standards promulgated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

The system is being initially operated with the Macau Civil Aviation Authority, marking the first city-pairing in the Asia-Pacific region providing a full aeronautical message-handling service on such a new information network.

The system operates on the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network, a global data system or 'aviation intranet', which provides ground-to-ground and air-to-ground communications to support future aviation systems.

The system will provide additional benefits like high-speed data transmission, more reliable message delivery, unlimited message length, support of graphical information and weather images instead of plain text, and web-based applications for aviation users to view, upload and download aeronautical information and services.