Chief executive officers of major airlines banded together to warn against a potential disruption of operations due to the incoming 5G launch on Wednesday by AT&T and Verizon.
“We are writing with urgency to request that 5G be implemented everywhere in the country except within the approximate 2 miles of airport runways at affected airports as defined by the FAA on January 19, 2022,” wrote the airport officials in a letter to federal government officials.
This request came after Verizon and AT&T had already delayed the launch twice due to similar concerns.
Airline executives are concerned the 5G signals will interfere with aviation technology including the radio altimeter on planes.
According to the executives, “the ripple effects across both passenger and cargo operations, our workforce and the broader economy are simply incalculable. To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt.
The letter states that the Federal Aviation Administration is not granting enough relief for major airports that could potentially be affected by this launch.
“Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” the letter states. “This means that on a day like yesterday, more than 1,100 flights and 100,000 passengers would be subjected to cancellations, diversions or delays.”
The executives continued to explain that radio altimeters, which might be affected, provide critical information in modern airplanes.
“Multiple modern safety systems on aircraft will be deemed unusable causing a much larger problem than what we knew on January 5, 2022,” the letter states. “Airplane manufacturers have informed us that there are huge swaths of the operating fleet that may need to be indefinitely grounded.”
Responding to this letter, AT&T and Verizon executives maintained that transmissions from 5G towers will not interfere with aviation electronics.
However, they begrudgingly agreed to delay turning on some towers around certain airport runways, explaining that 5G technology is being used successfully in more than 40 countries.
Other than these select towers, the wireless carriers say they plan to launch the high speed service nationwide.
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