Major airlines shrugged off 5G fiasco, but small regional carriers still face turbulence

Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

It seemed like the sky was falling in the lead up to the launch of AT&T and Verizon's upgraded 5G C-band equipment.

The FCC and carriers insisted that the upgraded cellular tech was safe even though the FAA and airline organizations had voiced concerns for years. Even after several delays, there were still last-minute deals being made between carriers and regulators, with airlines banding together to warn that the activation could cause a catastrophic disruption to air travel and shipping. International airlines canceled flights to US airports.

The CEOs of United and American Airlines told investors that things were fine a few days after the carriers switched on their equipment. The large-scale delays and cancelations hadn't come to pass, and the CEO of American Airlines predicted that there would be no material disruption going forward.

The FAA has deemed many of the large jets used by major airlines to be safe, but on Tuesday it banned the Boeing 747-8, 747-8F and 777 airplanes from landing at airports where 5 are present.

Almost every aircraft comes equipped with the radar, or radio altimeter. The radar altimeter helps pilots land in bad weather by showing them how far away the plane is from the ground.

In older generation airplanes, that was an isolated system that the pilot would read and interpret. The data can be accessed and used by a wide variety of other systems in more modern planes.

The FAA is concerned that they could accidentally pick up 5G C- Band signals. Notices were put out that restricted how planes could land at airports where the roll out was happening and that specific models of altimeters could be used at those airports. The FAA says it has to re- evaluate clearances every month based on how carriers roll out their service.

The restrictions are not tied to the material situation.

On January 16th, it was announced that 45 percent of the US commercial fleet was cleared to land at airports with 5G C-band. The number was up to 78 percent by January 20th, seemingly applied to all US airports with C-band. By January 25th, the FAA estimated that 90 percent of the US commercial fleet had an altimeter.

About 53 percent of the regional fleet has not been cleared or has limited clearances, according to the president and CEO of the Regional Airline Association.

The RAA, which represents the regional airlines that fly for United, Delta, American, Alaska, and more, doesn't expect the FAA to make additional revisions unless there are other alternatives. If the weather is bad, many of the planes used by regional airlines might not be allowed to land at some airports.

The small airport to the north of Seattle, Washington is called Paine Field. All flights at the airport were canceled on Monday because of fog. According to The Seattle Times, the planes that land at PAE are Embraer 175s, and the altimeter in those planes is only cleared if it is a certain distance away from C-Band towers.

It's not as easy to upgrade a component in your computer or add a device to your home as it is to replace a radar altimeter. It has to be approved for the installation in a particular airplane, and it has to be shown that it operates correctly with the other systems in the aircraft.

Even if the altimeters were changed to work better, they would still have to be re-certified by the FAA. Anderson told me that it takes a lot of time.

Black said that the airlines should not be on the hook for the millions of dollars they spent on the altimeters.

Black repeatedly called for telecom and aviation companies to work together to make sure that C-band could be rolled out without creating more problems with the FAA. Black said that there was complete collaboration among industries so that solutions were workable for all. I think that it needs to continue to improve.

There is a deadline for when things will have to be fixed. Unless there is credible evidence that real-world interference would occur if the mitigations were relaxed, AT&T and Verizon will stop creating special buffer zones in July.

There is no way to remove the deployment limitations in July, which could lead to a re-do in a few months. The FAA will be under a lot of pressure to be ready for the July deadline, according to Ostrower.