FAA wants airlines to retrofit, replace radio altimeters
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will meet Wednesday with telecom and airline industry officials on a push to retrofit and ultimately replace some airplane radio altimeters that could face interference from C-Band 5G wireless service.
The altimeters give data on a plane’s height above the ground and are crucial for bad-weather landings, but airline concerns about wireless interference from a planned 5G rollout led to disruptions at some U.S. airports earlier this year.
→ Spirit rejects JetBlue offer, says it wants to be bought by Frontier.
The FAA wants to use the meeting to establish “an achievable timeframe to retrofit/replace radar altimeters in the U.S. fleet,” according to a previously unreported letter from the FAA’s top aviation safety official Chris Rocheleau reviewed by Reuters. It also asked aviation representatives “to offer options and commit to actions necessary to meet these objectives.”
AT&T and Verizon Communications voluntarily agreed in January to delay through July 5 switching on some wireless towers and depowering others near airports just hours before the planned Jan. 19 deployment, averting what airlines had warned would cause a potentially “catastrophic” aviation safety crisis.
The delay did not prevent dozens of countries from canceling flights to the United States, casting the U.S. regulatory system in an ugly light.
→ Avelo Airlines announces new base and more routes.
The planned three-and-a-half hour roundtable meeting will also include a discussion on prioritizing retrofits with antenna filters, which mitigate potential interference from 5G.
Antenna filters are currently in production, officials said. A key question is how to determine which planes are most at risk of interference and should therefore get retrofitted first.
The meeting will also look at what is set to happen after July 5 and outline “changes to U.S. national airspace operating environment as a result of future 5G C-band deployment in the coming months.”
The FAA has been holding daily meetings with AT&T and Verizon that it said have “enabled us to closely tailor the areas requiring mitigation while aviation stakeholders take the necessary steps to retrofit existing radio altimeters with antenna filters.”
Related Topics
Arajet Expands South American Network With Launch of Nonstop Punta Cana–Rosario Flights
LATAM Awarded “Best Cabin Service in South America” for Third Time at the 2026 APEX Best Awards
American Airlines Hits 100 Latin American and Caribbean Destinations from Miami with Additions of Maracaibo and Cap-Haïtien
Wingo to Suspend Flights Between Bogota and Santo Domingo Starting in July
Plataforma Informativa de Aviación Comercial con 13 años de trayectoria.