Officials Warn of Possible Impact to Service at Manchester Airport Related to 5G rollout

Jan. 19—Officials at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport are warning of possible impacts to passenger flights from the rollout of 5G phone service.

AT&T and Verizon Communications announced Tuesday an agreement to temporarily defer turning on some wireless towers near key airports to avert a significant disruption to U.S. flights.

In a memo to city aldermen Tuesday, Airport Director Ted Kitchens says he and staff at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) are preparing for delays in or out of the airport because of a 5G transmitter in Massachusetts that affects southern New Hampshire.

"The situation as it stands right now is that our low visibility approaches to Runway 35 will be impacted by the 5G rollout and have been deemed 'not available' by the FAA through what is called a Notice to Airmen," Kitchens wrote.

While MHT falls outside areas identified by the telecommunications industry for the initial rollout of 5G, Kitchens said, a transmitter in Massachusetts "bleeds over" into the southern half of the state.

"This approach is the preferred approach during winter, as the wind generally favors an approach to Runway 35" because of winds coming out of the north, Kitchens said. "Should we get another round of winter weather, this may cause some flights to be cancelled at the departure airport or delayed until weather here at MHT improves.

"It is important to note that airlines will still have the ability to safely make instrument approaches into the airport. However, lower visibility approaches will be suspended until the full impacts of 5G implementation are better understood," Kitchens said.

In an email Tuesday afternoon, Kitchens said the situation could change at any time.

President Joe Biden hailed the phone companies' agreement, saying it "will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and our economic recovery, while allowing more than 90% of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled."

The carriers and the administration have agreed to work together to quickly address the issues and create a process to allow the remaining towers to be deployed, sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.

Biden said he had instructed officials to find "a permanent, workable solution around these key airports."

The Federal Aviation Administration ( FAA) has warned that 5G wireless interference could affect sensitive airplane instruments like radio altimeters and hamper low-visibility operations.

The FAA said it anticipated "some impacts due to the limitations of some radio altimeters" despite the announcement.

Over the weekend, the FAA approved certain aircraft types for alternative means of compliance (AMOC) for operations in the 5G C-band spectrum, including some Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767, MD-10/-11 and Airbus A310, A319, A320, A321, A330 and A350.

MHT typically handles 737, 767, MD-10/11, A319 and A320 series aircraft, Kitchens said.

"We are also working with our carrier partners to determine if the aircraft types approved through an AMOC will be serving the airport," said Kitchens. "We have heard back from some of our carrier partners and, right now, it appears the impact will be minimal, but we are still gathering information."

This is the third time that AT&T and Verizon agreed to delay deployment of the new C-Band 5G wireless service. In November the companies postponed deployment by 30 days until Jan. 5. Earlier this month, they again agreed to delay until Jan. 19.

Details of the latest agreement were not disclosed, but airlines in recent days had proposed temporarily not deploying just under 10% of towers, or about 500, sources told Reuters. Nearly all but a handful of the impacted sites are Verizon towers.

Despite the agreement, major foreign carriers including Air India and Japan's biggest airline, ANA, said they had canceled some U.S.-bound flights because of possible 5G interference.

Airlines still are likely to cancel some additional flights as they wait for formal guidance from regulators on the announcements from Verizon and AT&T. They warned Monday of "catastrophic" impacts. Airlines are concerned that the issue could prevent them from flying Boeing 777s and other widebody jets to many key airports.

The chief executives of major U.S. passenger and cargo carriers on Monday said new 5G service 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.

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Information from wire reports was used in this story.

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