Flights to US canceled, reinstated after AT&T, Verizon delay 5G near airports

Update (Jan. 19, 2022): A day after Verizon and AT&T announced they would delay their 5G rollout near some airports, several major international airlines canceled some of their flights to some U.S. cities Wednesday. Those airlines include British Airways, Air India, Japan’s All Nippon Airways and Dubai-based Emirates.

“We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and the relevant authorities to alleviate operational concerns, and we hope to resume our U.S. services as soon as possible,” Emirates said Wednesday.

Other airlines changed the planes they were using for U.S. flights. These include Japan Airlines, Korean Air, Austrian Airlines and Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific. They have expressed concerns with using Boeing 777 planes for U.S. flights. Japan Airlines said that it had been informed on Tuesday that 5G signals “may interfere with the radio altimeter installed on the Boeing 777.”

However, it appears many of those flights may be reinstated. In an updated statement Wednesday, Japan Airlines said “we have received confirmation from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) that there is no longer a problem with the operation of the Boeing 777 and we will resume service to the U.S. mainland with Boeing 777 from January 20.”

Original Story (Jan. 18, 2022): For the third time, telecommunication giants Verizon and AT&T announced Tuesday they would delay the rollout of their 5G wireless services around runways at some airports. The rollouts, now set for tomorrow, were delayed for the first time last month, and then again earlier this month.

According to a statement from AT&T, as shown in this tweet from BBC reporter Jonathan Josephs, the delay comes “as we continue to work with the aviation industry and the [Federal Aviation Administration] 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.”

In its own statement, Verizon added the FAA “and our nation’s airlines have not been able to fully resolve navigating 5G around airports, despite it being safe and fully operational in more than 40 other countries.”

The decision from AT&T and Verizon came a day after top officials from multiple airlines wrote a joint letter to the FAA, the National Economic Council, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Communications Commissions. The officials requested the 5G services not be implemented “within the approximate two miles of airport runways at affected airports.”

“Immediate intervention is needed to avoid significant operational disruption to air passengers, shippers, supply chain and delivery of needed medical supplies,” the officials wrote in the letter, according to a tweet from Reuters reporter David Shepardson. “The harm that will result from deployment on January 19 is substantially worse than we originally anticipated.”

The White House has been trying to work out a deal between AT&T, Verizon and the airline industry. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said if “hundreds or thousands of flights” are grounded, it would affect passengers and the shipping of cargo needed for the nation’s supply chain.

“We want to avoid that and prevent it,” Psaki said. In his own statement Tuesday, President Joe Biden thanked AT&T and Verizon for agreeing to halt the 5G rollout near some airports.

“This agreement will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and our economic recovery, while allowing more than 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled,” President Biden said. “This agreement protects flight safety and allows aviation operations to continue without significant disruption and will bring more high-speed internet options to millions of Americans.”