Aviation Companies Pushing Back on 5G

If you have watched TV or scrolled social media in the last few years, this won’t be news to you. 5G is the next big thing in mobile. We all remember the sound of dial-up when firing up our desktops to play Oregon Trail, but broadband changed that. Each time we get new capability for better, faster internet, we as a society go all in. That was the case with the government launching a plan to implement 5G in airports across the country. However, the Aviation industry is pushing back, warning it could be dangerous. 

Aviation pushes back on 5G

Chief executive officers from Alaska Airlines, American, Delta, FedEx, JetBlue, Southwest, and United spoke up in response to the plan. Fox News obtained a letter sent that offers their concerns over its impact on airport operations. 

“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,” the letter says. “This will allow 5G to be deployed while avoiding harmful impacts on the aviation industry, traveling public, supply chain, vaccine distribution, our workforce, and broader economy.”

“We further ask that the FAA immediately identify those base stations closest to key airport runways that need to be addressed to ensure safety and avoid disruption in a manner that is narrowly focused and consistent with the agreement established on January 3, 2022.”

Airport Companies Aren’t Alone

Roger Dow, CEO and President of The U.S. Travel Association, also weighed in on the concern. “The U.S. Travel Association is urgently calling on the U.S. government and mobile wireless carriers to delay the introduction of 5G wireless around affected airports until critical operational concerns can be resolved.”

A statement from United Airlines laid out what their concerns were and how 5G possibly impacts aviation. “The radio altimeters on certain aircraft, which provide information to other safety systems like autopilot, heads-up displays, terrain warning and pitch control, will be compromised and will result in significant restrictions on 787s, 777s, 737s and regional aircraft in major cities like Houston, Newark, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Unfortunately, this will result in not only hundreds of thousands of flight cancellations and disruptions for customers across the industry in 2022, but also the suspension of cargo flights into these locations, causing a negative ripple-effect on an already fragile supply chain.”