The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) this week issued new approvals that allow nearly 80% of the commercial fleet in the United States to conduct low-visibility landings at airports where communications firms have deployed 5G C-band. The country's aviation body highlighted that some regional jets have also been cleared as the wireless saga continues.
The majority of the fleet
Earlier this week, the FAA shared that approvals allowed for an estimated 62% of the US commercial fleet to perform these low-visibility landings despite 5G C-band. However, there has been rapid progress since, as on Thursday, the group shared that 78% of the commercial fleet has now been cleared.
Along with some Embraer E170 and E190 regional jets, the FAA shared that aircraft models with one of the 13 cleared altimeters include:
Boeing
- 717
- 737
- 747
- 757
- 767
- 777
- 787
McDonnell Douglas
- MD-10
- MD-11
Airbus
- A300
- A310
- A319
- A320
- A330
- A340
- A350
- A380
Work in progress
Nonetheless, even with the approvals, services at some airports could still be impacted. Work is still undergoing with manufacturers to understand how radar altimeter data is utilized in other flight control systems. Regardless, the FAA recognizes the importance of expanding 5G, and is taking the rollout seriously from all angles.
“The FAA is working diligently to determine which altimeters are reliable and accurate where 5G is deployed in the United States. We anticipate some altimeters will be too susceptible to 5G interference,” the FAA shared in a January 20th statement.
“To preserve safety, aircraft with those altimeters will be prohibited from performing low-visibility landings where 5G is deployed because the altimeter could provide inaccurate information. Passengers should check with their airlines for latest flight schedules.”
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Industry woes
It's not just carriers in the US that the 5G expansion is causing a stir with. For instance, Emirates President Sir Tim Clark recently slammed the process as "utterly irresponsible" due to his carrier having to cancel flights at short notice. Additionally, LATAM switched up its operations amid the deployment before resuming 777 flights to the US ahead of the weekend.
Earlier this month, the FAA revealed a list of airports that will have buffer zones following the rollout of C-band on January 19th. This move came on the back of FAA Administrator Steve Dickson and United States Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg asking for a postponement of the introduction from January 5th to help enable further testing and evaluation.
In this early stage, the US aviation industry will likely undergo some teething problems following the introduction. We can expect further twists and turns in this sector in the coming weeks.
What are your thoughts about how the implementation of 5G C-band is going so far? What do you make of the impact on the aviation industry? Let us know what you think of the overall situation in the comment section.