 (7)-x-large.jpg)
Several international airlines have announced modifications or cancellations to flights to the United States amid recent concerns about the rollout of new 5G services that could affect criticial plane technologies.
Air India, All Nippon Airways, British Airways, Emirates, Lufthansa and Japan Airlines have all announced changes to their operations to the US citing the 5G rollout issue.
In a statement, Emirates said the suspension of flights to a number of US destinations will be effective from January 20, 2022 "until further notice," citing operational concerns associated with the planned 5G network deployment.
The ban applies to Boston, Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco and Seattle while flights to New York, Los Angeles and Washington Dulles continue to operate as scheduled.
Emirates will also operate flights to Boston, Houston, and San Francisco, utilising the Emirates A380 aircraft.
Air India noted that it would cancel services to San Francisco, Chicago and JFK from Delhi and also suspend operations between Mumbai to Newark in New Jersey, although its flight to Washington Dulles will continue.
Japanese airlines, ANA and Japan Airlines, also earlier canceled some services to the US scheduled to use Boeing 777 planes and said it will operate some flights using Boeing 787s instead.
Lufthansa also suspended a flight from Frankfurt to Miami citing the similar concern — and would change the aircraft to Boeing 747-8 aircraft for 747-400s on flights from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
"We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and the relevant authorities to alleviate operational concerns, and we hope to resume our US services as soon as possible," the Dubai-based carrier said in a statement.
While cargo airlines have yet to announce service modifications to the US due to the 5G concerns, passenger flight disruptions are expected to further squeeze whatever belly capacity is left flying in passenger planes.
2-week delay in 5G deployment
AT&T and Verizon, two major US telecommunications companies, have already announced a two-week delay in the deployment of their c-band 5G networks from January 19, citing worries from the aviation industry about the rollout's safety implications to airline operations.
In a statement on January 18, US President Joe Biden lauded the two-week suspension, although noting that 5G is a "critical priority" of his administration.
"I want to thank Verizon and AT&T for agreeing to delay 5G deployment around key airports and to continue working with the Department of Transportation on safe 5G deployment at this limited set of locations," Biden said.
"This agreement will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and our economic recovery, while allowing more than 90% of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled."
Airlines warn of "economic calamity"
Meanwhile, in a letter earlier sent by Airlines for America, a trade association for the sector — which includes cargo airlines — they sought immediate action on the 5G rollout in the country to "avoid significant operational disruption" in the already heavily-strained strained supply chain.
"The ripple effects across both passenger and cargo operations, our workforce and the broader economy are simply incalculable," the letter signed by 11 airlines including Atlas Air Worldwide, FedEx Express and UPS.
"Every one of the passenger and cargo carriers will be struggling to get people, shipments, planes and crews where they need to be. To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt," it added.
The airlines sought that the 5G rollout be implemented "everywhere in the country except within the approximate two miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA on January 19."
"Given the short time frame and the exigency of this completely avoidable economic calamity, we respectfully request you support and take whatever action necessary to ensure that 5G is deployed except when towers are too close to airport runways until the FAA can determine how that can be safely accomplished without catastrophic disruption," the letter added.
