Dubai’s Emirates (EMIRA.UL) airline announced that it will suspend flights to several destinations in the United States as of yesterday until further notice because of concerns over 5G mobile deployment.
The move is “due to operational concerns associated with the planned deployment of 5G mobile network services in the U.S.”, the company said.
It said the destinations include Boston, Chicago, Dallas Fort Worth, Houston, Miami, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco, and Seattle.
Emirates flights to New York’s JFK, Los Angeles International Airport and Washington DC’s Dulles International Airport will continue to operate as usual, the company added.
“We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and the relevant authorities to alleviate operational concerns, and we hope to resume our US services as soon as possible,” the carrier said.
The White House said earlier that it wants to reach a solution on 5G deployment that protects air safety while minimizing disruption to air travel.
The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers on Monday warned of an impending “catastrophic” aviation crisis in less than 36 hours, when AT and T (T.N) and Verizon (VZ.N) are set to deploy new 5G service.
The airlines warned the new C-Band 5G service set to begin yesterday could render a significant number of widebody aircraft unusable, “could potentially strand tens of thousands of Americans overseas” and cause “chaos” for U.S. flights.
“Unless our major hubs are cleared to fly, the vast majority of the traveling and shipping public will essentially be grounded,” wrote the chief executives of American Airlines (AAL.O), Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), United Airlines , Southwest Airlines (LUV.N) and others in a letter first reported by Reuters.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has warned that potential interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments such as altimeters and significantly hamper low-visibility operations.
Source; Reuters