Air India to curtail or revise US flights on 5G concerns

File image of an Air India aircraft (Representative image)

Air India said it will curtail or revise flights to the US from tomorrow because of concerns over 5G mobile deployment there.

The US aviation regulator had on January 14 said that 5G interference with the aircraft's radio altimeter could prevent engine and braking systems from transitioning to landing mode.

US President Joe Biden praised AT&T and Verizon for agreeing to temporarily limit deployment of 5G C-band service around select airport runway and said the agreement "will avoid potentially devastating disruptions to passenger travel, cargo operations, and economic recovery, while allowing more than 90 percent of wireless tower deployment to occur as scheduled."

Air India had tweeted yesterday: “Due to deployment of 5G communications in USA, our operations to USA from India stand curtailed/revised with change in aircraft type from January 19, 2022.” “Update in this regard will be informed shortly,” it added.

#FlyAI: Due to deployment of the 5G communications in USA,we will not be able to operate the following flights of 19th Jan'22:

AI101/102 DEL/JFK/DEL
AI173/174 DEL/SFO/DEL
AI127/126 DEL/ORD/DEL
AI191/144 BOM/EWR/BOM

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Please standby for further updates.https://t.co/Cue4oHChwx

— Air India (@airindiain) January 18, 2022

Also, a group of US-based airlines said on Monday in a letter to the US aviation regulator that that 5G internet deployment could cause catastrophic aviation crisis. The group comprises airlines such as United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and FedEx.

Apart from Air India, United Airlines and American Airlines are the other two carriers that operate flights between India and the US. The airlines group said that 5G should be implemented everywhere in the US except within two miles of runways.

With PTI inputs