Airline experts in the United States have warned that the proposed 5G signals could disrupt thousands of flights and cost air passengers $1.6 billion annually in delays starting from January 5, 2022.
The Chief Executive of United Airlines, Scott Kirby, said that if the plan to use the C-Band spectrum for 5G wireless are continued, it could cause delay, diversion or cancellation of about 4 percent daily flights and affect thousands of passengers which will be a catastrophic failure.
Kirby added that once the 5G spectrum is rolled out by January 5, the airline’s pilots will not be able to use radio altimeters at 40-something of the largest airports in the country which means in the event of bad weather and cloud cover or even heavy smog, pilots would only be able to do visual approaches as their altimeters could be affected by potential interference.
Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) gave new directives of the revision of airplanes and helicopter flight manuals to prohibit some operations that require the use of radio altimeter data when in the presence of the 5G spectrum.
The agency also plans to issue notice to state specific areas where the data from a radio altimeter may be unreliable due to the 5G spectrum.
