US airlines warn of 5G flight havoc

WASHINGTON • Major US air carriers have warned that plans by wireless carriers to use a spectrum for 5G wireless services starting on Jan 5 could disrupt thousands of daily flights and cost air passengers US$1.6 billion (S$2.2 billion) annually in delays.

AT&T and Verizon Communications must delay the plans to use C-Band spectrum for 5G wireless services, United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby said, following a US Senate Commerce Committee hearing, adding that it could delay, divert or cancel about 4 per cent of daily flights and impact hundreds of thousands of passengers.

"It would be a catastrophic failure of government," he told reporters.

The aviation industry and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) have raised concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters.

Last week, the FAA issued new airworthiness directives warning that interference from the 5G wireless spectrum could result in flight diversions, but did not quantify the impact.

"Coming Jan 5 - unless something changes - we will not be able to use radio altimeters at 40-something of the largest airports in the country," Mr Kirby said. "It is a certainty. This is not a debate."

He said it would mean that at major US airports - in the event of bad weather, cloud cover or even heavy smog - "you could only do visual approaches essentially".

Trade group Airlines for America said on Wednesday that if the FAA 5G directive had been in effect in 2019, "approximately 345,000 passenger flights, 32 million passengers and 5,400 cargo flights would have been impacted in the form of delayed flights, diversions or cancellations".

Southwest Airlines' chief executive Gary Kelly told the Senate hearing that if the FAA directive takes effect, it "would be a significant setback" to its operations.

The wireless industry defended the technology. "The aviation industry's fear-mongering relies on completely discredited information and deliberate distortions of fact," CTIA, a wireless trade group, said.

It said that 5G operates safely and without causing harmful interference to aviation operations in nearly 40 countries around the world.

The Biden administration is eager to see the issue resolved. White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese met Federal Communications Commission chairman Jessica Rosenworcel and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on the issue on Wednesday, sources said.

The White House and the Transportation Department did not comment.

Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn at the hearing urged airlines to work with the wireless carriers to reach an agreement.

Ms Rosenworcel has said she believes the issues can be resolved and spectrum safely used.

In addition to agreeing to delay the commercial launch of the C-band wireless service until Jan 5, AT&T and Verizon in November adopted precautionary measures for six months to limit interference.

Aviation industry groups said they were insufficient to address air safety concerns and have made a counterproposal.

United's Mr Kirby said the FCC and FAA "need to get in a room and talk to each other and solve the problem", adding that the issue "cannot be solved on the back of airlines".

Airlines for America said the FAA directive would "materially disrupt airline operations" and added that cargo operators estimate it "would have cost them US$400 million annually".

The group assessed "the annual impact cost to passengers to be approximately US$1.59 billion" of travel delays.

Wireless carriers have shown no interest in further delays to using the spectrum, which the industry paid more than US$80 billion to acquire.

The FAA directives order revising airplane and helicopter flight manuals to prohibit some operations requiring radio altimeter data when in the presence of 5G C-Band wireless broadband signals.

The FAA plans to issue further notices to airlines before Jan 5 offering more details on the potential interference and is in discussion about which altimeters could be used under the current mitigation plans.

REUTERS