Travel plans for thousands of passengers, including those travelling to India, were disrupted after airlines cancelled or cut short the duration of many flights to and from the United States over aviation industry fears that 5G technology could interfere with crucial navigation instruments.
Several international airlines, including Air India, have announced that they will cancel flights to the US from Wednesday.
The US aviation regulator Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on January 14 said that “5G interference with the aircraft’s radio altimeter could prevent engine and braking systems from transitioning to landing mode, which could prevent an aircraft from stopping on the runway”.
Altimeter measures the height of the aircraft above the ground. The band on which altimeter works is close to that on which the 5G system works. American telecom companies paid the US government USD 81 billion in 2021 for the right to use those frequencies, known as the C-Band.
The C-band service, which offers faster speeds and broader coverage, was due to be turned on from Wednesday. The frequency issue appeared to impact the popular Boeing 777, a long-range and wide-body aircraft.
Air India tweeted on Tuesday that due to deployment of 5G communications in the US, “our operations to the USA from India stand curtailed/revised with change in aircraft type from January 19, 2022.” Air India stated on Twitter that it won’t be operate eight India-US flights on Wednesday “due to deployment of the 5G communications in the US”.
These eight Air India flights were: Delhi-New York, New York-Delhi, Delhi-Chicago, Chicago-Delhi, Delhi- San Francisco, San Francisco-Delhi, Delhi-Newark and Newark-Delhi.
Three carriers — American Airlines, Delta Airlines and Air India — currently operate direct flights between India and the US.
Apart from Air India, several other airlines announced they were cancelling flights into the US…