Major international airlines, Wednesday rushed to cancel, change and reshuffle their flights heading into the US due to an ongoing dispute over the rollout of 5G mobile phone technology near most of the American airports. This issue has impacted airlines like the Dubai-based Emirates, Japan’s All Nippon Airways and India’s Air India to name a few.
The 5G issue seems to have impacted Boeing 777 – the long-range, wide-body aircraft used by carriers globally. It has been found that two Japanese airlines have said that Boeing is being affected by the 5G signals and have announced cancellations and changes in their flight schedules.
Emirates, which has key operations globally, announced that it will be halting flights to cities like Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Florida, Houston, Miami, Newark, New Jersey, Orlando, San Francisco and Seattle over the 5G issue beginning Wednesday. However, flight operations to metropolises: New York, Washington and Los Angeles will continue to operate normally.
During the announcement, the Dubai-based airlines cited the cancellation as essential owing to “operational concerns associated with the planned deployment of 5G mobile network services in the US at several airports.”
“We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and the relevant authorities to alleviate operational concerns, and hope to resume our US services at the earliest,” the state-owned airline said.
Contrary to the US, the United Arab Emirates has successfully rolled out 5G coverage around all its major airport cities without any such incident.
Meanwhile, in the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is bothered about the C-Band strand of 5G that could interfere with aviation equipment. However, as of now, Boeing 777, which is the major workhorse for Emirates, appears to be of particular concern in the 5G rollout plans.
According to All Nippon Airways (ANA), the FAA has indicated that radio waves from the 5G wireless service may interfere with aircraft altimeters. An altimeter is a key piece of equipment that is used to measure the height at which a plane is flying.
“Boeing has announced flight restrictions on all airlines operating the Boeing 777 aircraft, and we have cancelled or changed the aircraft for some flights to and from the US, based on the announcement by Boeing,” ANA said.
Similarly, another airline from Japan, the Japan Airlines Co. Ltd has said that they were informed regarding the 5G signals installed near the airports that may interfere with the radio altimeter installed on the Boeing 777. Amidst all these issues, the Chicago-based Boeing Co. refused to comment or give a statement on it.
Meanwhile, Air India also took to Twitter, to announce that they are cancelling flights to Chicago, Newark, New York and San Francisco as the 5G communications equipment have been deployed in these cities. The Indian air carrier said that they will try to use a different aircraft on these US routes.
The cancellations by the aforementioned airlines come at a time when mobile phone carriers like Verizon and AT&T have postponed new wireless services near some of the proposed airports in the US. Their installations were planned for this week.
Meanwhile, the FAA has decided to allow planes with precise, reliable altimeters to fly around high-power 5G installations. It also said that planes with older altimeters will not be allowed to make landings under low-visibility conditions.
