Airlines amp up warnings on 5G service, see risk of late flights

New York

WIDESPREAD flight delays in snowstorms and low visibility could occur once new 5G wireless service rolls out in early January, airline executives and aviation officials are warning with increasing alarm.

The officials say the new wireless signals threaten to interfere with equipment on planes and helicopters that track aircraft altitude, which could prohibit landings in poor visibility and create a cascade of delays, diversions and cancellations - a concern the wireless industry maintains is unfounded.

The issue is coming to a head as White House officials, regulators and industry groups struggle, without result, for agreement before the service starts on Jan 5. AT&T and Verizon Communications have offered power reductions. The aviation industry calls such cuts "inadequate".

The prospect of flight disruptions comes as airlines struggle to recover from the coronavirus pandemic that led to billions of dollars in losses last year.

Carriers also have been dealing with staff shortages and thousands of unruly passenger episodes this year and the industry is concerned the 5G clash will cost as much as US$2.1 billion in flight disruptions, according to the trade group Airlines for America.

"If you were to ask us what our No 1 concern is in the near term, it is the deployment of 5G," Southwest Airlines chief executive officer Gary Kelly testified at a Senate hearing on Wednesday (Dec 15). Talks continue.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Jessica Rosenworcel and officials from the White House's National Economic Council (NEC) met on Wednesday, according to 2 people familiar with the meeting.

Aviation-industry groups at a Dec 10 meeting with the NEC were told their proposal that 5G power levels get deeper cuts near airports than mobile providers promised wasn't accepted, according to 3 people in the aerospace industry familiar with discussions.

The result is a deepening sense of gloom in the aviation industry that some level of service cuts are all but inevitable because the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), faced with even a remote prospect that safety could be threatened by the new 5G signals, must act conservatively.

"What that means, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing less than a lot of flights are going to be cancelled," said Jeffrey Shane, a former airline industry official who also served in the US Department of Transportation, speaking on Dec 10 at a government advisory panel on protecting radio frequency.

The 5G signals will operate in airwaves near those used by radar altimeters, which determine altitude by bouncing radio waves off the ground. The aviation industry says tests show 5G can interfere with the altimeters, posing hazards especially during bad-weather landings. Mobile providers dispute that outcome, saying the 5G signals are sufficiently separated from the frequencies used by altimeters, and are set to operate at safe levels.

On Wednesday Airlines for America said the 5G service could disrupt as many as 350,000 flights a year, based on some worst-case assumptions. Wireless providers paid at least US$81 billion for rights to the contested airwaves. They rejected predictions of trouble.

"The aviation industry's fear-mongering relies on completely discredited information and deliberate distortions of fact," said Nick Ludlum, a senior vice president at the trade group CTIA, which includes AT&T and Verizon as members.

"5G operates safely and without causing harmful interference to aviation operations in nearly 40 countries around the world," Ludlum said. "US airlines fly in and out of these countries every day."

The FAA and aviation groups say that other nations have imposed the kinds of protections that they are seeking or that the frequencies used in those countries have been located farther away from those assigned to aircraft equipment.

The FCC, which approved the mobile providers' airwaves use, has declined to impose additional restrictions and said it is working with aviation regulators to resolve the dispute. The FAA on Dec 7 issued a pair of safety directives saying that it could impose a variety of restrictions that included prohibiting low-visibility landings in the proximity of 5G signals. The agency stopped short of specific limitations and said it was continuing to study the potential risks. However, in recent days the potential for flight restrictions have become clearer, said multiple people familiar with discussions.

One manufacturer of the so-called radar altimeters estimated that 70 per cent of airliners equipped with its devices might be prone to interference and, therefore, subject to FAA's restrictions, according to 2 people familiar with the talks.

While the number of planes isn't yet known and is subject to change, it could involve thousands of aircraft, they added. BLOOMBERG