Air travel disruption warning from July 1 due to 5G rollout will ban older aircraft from landing

• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned that only planes equipped with new altimeters will be allowed to land if visibility is poor.
• His warning comes days before the ramp-up of 5G cell towers across the country, with experts warning the signals could interfere with altimeters.
• The CEOs of some of the nation’s largest airlines previously sent a letter to federal officials warning that new 5G services could cause disruption.

The rollout of 5G could disrupt travel next week as older planes may be banned from taking off over concerns that the new network will interfere with communications.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said only properly equipped planes will be allowed to fly during bad weather or other periods of low visibility.

Buttigieg’s warning, in a letter to the industry group Airlines for America, comes just before AT&T, Verizon and other airlines will be free to ramp up their 5G signal output on July 1. It was done.

Some aviation experts believe the signal on the radio spectrum is too close to the frequencies used by radio altimeters, which measure a plane’s height above the ground.

Although the new altimeter is protected from interference, some airlines have complained that they are unable to upgrade all their aircraft due to a lack of this equipment.

“There is a real risk of delays and cancellations,” Buttigieg said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

“This represents the biggest issue, probably one of the biggest issues, that we anticipate will impact performance this summer.”

Some airlines now have most or all of their aircraft equipped with the latest equipment and therefore expect no problems, or plan to impose any restrictions on those that do not. He said he hopes it will be possible.

With the July 1 deadline approaching in 18 months, Buttigieg said more than 80% of domestic aircraft and about 65% of international aircraft in service with the United States will be equipped with radar altimeters that are less susceptible to interference from 5G signals. He said that

JetBlue has confirmed that 17 of its A220 jets will be updated by October, but until then, low visibility days may be impacted.

Delta Air Lines said it still has 190 narrow-body planes without updated altimeters due to supply chain issues.

United Airlines said all its planes have been updated with new altimeters, and Southwest Airlines said its current altimeters can operate without restrictions.

AT&T and Verizon, which won nearly all of the C-band spectrum in an $80 billion auction last year, have established buffer zones around 50 airports to reduce interference risks and other measures to reduce potential interference. They agreed to take the course for six months.

However, many major airports were not included in the list.

Earlier this year, the CEOs of some of the country’s largest airlines wrote to the government warning of disruption.

Action is urgent, the executives added in the letter, and “frankly, the nation’s commerce will come to a halt.”

The document was signed by the chief executives of American Airlines, JetBlue Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines, as well as officials from FedEx Express and UPS Airlines.

They argued that because radio altimeters provide critical information to other safety and navigation systems in modern airplanes, multiple modern safety systems “will be rendered unusable.”

“Aircraft manufacturers have informed us that a huge proportion of their aircraft in service may be grounded indefinitely.”