Rather, it is redirecting airlines to the airframe and radio altimeter manufacturers and airlines must hope for a solution that will pass muster. Moreover, the FAA has not stated which radio altimeters and filters will meet its requirements. In any case, asking airlines to quickly sign off huge amounts of money on the basis of an informal agreement is an inappropriate way forward. Although AT&T and Verizon have indicated a willingness to extend the informal agreement, as yet there is no such deal with the remainder of the telecom industry. IATA Director General Willie Walsh made that point in a letter to US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Acting FAA Administrator Bill Nolen: “It is now clear to everyone (the FAA, the aircraft manufactures, the radio altimeter manufacturers, and airlines serving the United States) that many operators will not make the proposed July 2023 … retrofit deadline owing to supply chain issues, certification delays, and unavoidable logistical challenges,” Walsh wrote.įurther complicating the situation for airlines is the fact that the proposed FAA compliance deadlines for airlines to have “radio altimeter tolerant” aircraft are based on AT&T and Verizon maintaining their voluntary limits on transmitting power beyond the 1 July expiration date. Putting aside the injustice of the situation, the FAA deadlines are simply not achievable. We are working hard to find a rational solution.” They are blameless yet suffering the consequences. “Airlines are having to find and pay for a solution to a problem of somebody else’s making. “The unfairness of this outcome cannot be overstated,” says Doug Lavin, IATA’s Vice President, Member and External Relations – North America. Add in the cost of non-US carriers and the industry outgoing will be close to $640 million. IATA calculations put the cost at twice that-based on a real-world example-and if the 6,000 US aircraft that have already been retrofitted to follow FAA recommendations are included the price soars to more than $450 million. The FAA estimates the cost of compliance at $26 million based on $26,000 per retrofit for approximately 1,000 aircraft. Furthermore, from 1 February 2024, aircraft that have not been retrofitted with filters or new RadAlts will be banned from operating in US airspace.Īlthough the 2024 deadline specifically applies only to US airlines, under Annex 8 of the Chicago Convention, other Contracting States must take steps to bring the requirements of an FAA-issued AD into effect with respect to aircraft on their registries. The FAA, meanwhile, has logged about 100 instances of possible interference with RadAlts, although none has resulted in an incident or accident.Īdding new urgency to this race to modify aircraft is the FAA’s proposed Airworthiness Directive (AD), issued in January 2023, which gives airlines until 1 July 2023 to install new RadAlts or upgrade existing ones with new filters to utilize instrument landing systems at affected US airports. Since then, airlines have borne the cost of modifying thousands of aircraft to enable them to operate in CAT 2 and CAT 3 landing conditions in the presence of 5G transmissions. Unfortunately, industry concerns went unheeded until late 2022, when they reached the White House, leading to the last-minute compromise. The industry continued to raise these concerns during and following the auctions, which raised billions of dollars for the US government. In the same month, up to 19 additional telecom providers are expected to introduce 5G services in the C-band and they are not part of the existing, voluntary deal.Īviation interests including the FAA, airlines, and manufacturers have warned of 5G interference risks since 2018, when the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed auctioning off the bandwidth to telecom providers. That compromise is set to expire in July 2023, however. Under the deal, the telecom providers-AT&T and Verizon-agreed to restrict power levels of their 5G C-band towers near airports and approach paths. RadAlts not only tell an aircraft its height from the ground but also feed into other safety-critical systems that are vital for landing, particularly in poor weather.Īn eleventh-hour compromise between the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and 5G telecom providers avoided massive flight disruptions in 2022. Time is running out for airlines to meet proposed regulatory deadlines in the United States to retrofit or modify aircraft radar altimeters (RadAlts) to ensure that they won’t suffer interference from 5G C-band transmissions from towers located near US airports and approach paths. Looming deadlines in the ongoing dilemma surrounding 5G implementation in the United States threaten to disrupt global aviation.
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