U.S. airline CEOs warn of ‘catastrophic’ disruption from 5G rollout

The aviation industry faces “catastrophic” disruption from the rollout of a new 5G service this week, airline leaders have warned.

In a letter sent Monday to United States transportation and economic officials, the CEOs of major carriers said that the launch could ground flights and leave “tens of thousands of Americans” stranded overseas.

The warning came ahead of Wednesday’s rollout of the new C-Band 5G service from telecommunications giants AT&T and Verizon. It also comes as airlines continue to contend with the fallout from widespread flight cancellations fueled by the spread of the omicron variant of Covid-19 and a series of winter storms that caused travel chaos across the U.S.

The airlines warned that the 5G signals risked interfering with safety equipment pilots rely on to take off and land in inclement weather.

“Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” they said in the letter, which was signed by the chief executives of American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue, along with leaders of UPS and FedEx.

“Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies,” the letter said.

Without clearance, it added: “To be blunt, the nation’s commerce will grind to a halt.”

The letter was addressed to National Economic Council Director Brian Deese, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Stephen Dickson and Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel.

AT&T said later Tuesday that the company had agreed “to temporarily defer turning on a limited number of towers around certain airport runways as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the FAA to provide further information about our 5G deployment, since they have not utilized the two years they’ve had to responsibly plan for this deployment.”

“We are frustrated by the FAA’s inability to do what nearly 40 countries have done, which is to safely deploy 5G technology without disrupting aviation services, and we urge it do so in a timely manner,” an AT&T spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We are launching our advanced 5G services everywhere else as planned with the temporary exception of this limited number of towers.”

Fifth-generation wireless technology, widely known as 5G, promises to deliver ultra-fast internet speeds, extra bandwidth and increased connectivity, with telecommunications companies around the world racing to roll out the service.

Both AT&T and Verizon have previously insisted that 5G networks operate safely without interference in nearly 40 countries and would do the same in the U.S. They declined to comment further on Monday.

The concern is that the airwave spectrum used by the 5G technology could clash with the signals used by radio altimeters, measuring instruments that help pilots determine the distance from the ground to the bottom of an aircraft during low visibility operations.

Both companies have agreed to maintain buffer zones around at least 50…