Several international airlines announce that they will cancel flights to the United States from January 19.
The US aviation industry is concerned that 5G C-band signals might disrupt aircraft navigation systems. Especially those used in case of bad weather. Faced with these risks, Emirates, Air India, All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have announced service reductions.
Aviation concerns have already caused several delays. As a reminder, the telecom companies were planning to launch C-band (5G) service on January 19. On alert to the risks, the aircraft industry has delayed the launch twice since early December.
Delays, distrust and cancellations
ANA, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, Japan Airlines… Some international airlines said on January 18 that they would cancel some US flights due to potential interference.
For example, Air India said it would suspend service between Delhi airport and San Francisco, Chicago and JFK. It will also suspend a flight from Mumbai to Newark. For its part, Emirates will suspend flights at nine US airports. Namely, Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston, Miami, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco and Seattle. “We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and relevant authorities to mitigate operational issues, and hope to resume service in the United States as soon as possible.”, the company said in its statement.
Finally, Boeing notified Japan Airlines that 5G signals for US mobile phones “may interfere with the radio wave altimeter installed on the Boeing 777”. Namely, the company sent this notification before the telecommunications companies accepted the new limitations.
Keep 5G signals away
The ten largest US airlines have sent a letter to regulators. They say 5G will be more disruptive than they initially thought. According to “the ten”, these signals might affect “more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers” daily because. They add that “the nation’s trade will come to a standstill“. The letter is dated January 17
Thus, the companies wanted 5G to be deployed everywhere in the country, except within a radius of “3.2 km from the slopes” from some major airports, “as defined by the FAA on January 19, 2022”. This distance from the signals “will enable 5G to be deployed while avoiding adverse impacts on the aviation industry, travelers, supply chain, vaccine distribution, our workforce and the wider economy”.
The fed up of telecommunications companies
AT&T, which owns CNN’s parent company, and Verizon both announced on January 18 that they would delay the activation of 5G on some pylons around certain airports. And this, while the deployment was scheduled for the next day.
“We are frustrated with the Federal Aviation Administration’s failure to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it to do so in due time”, AT&T said in a statement. Specifically, the company said it was postponing “temporarily” deployment on a “limited number of laps around some airport runways”. Verizon also said it would “voluntarily” limit the 5G network near airports.
In a statement, President Joe Biden thanked Verizon and AT&T for agreeing to the postponement, which he said would only affect regarding 10% of wireless tower locations.