SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse Hancock International Airport is currently on a list of several airports where low-visibility operations are banned with today’s launch of 5G cellular service.
“In this case, low visibility is defined as less than a 200-foot ceiling and less than 1,800 feet ‘runway visual range,’ a measure of how far down the runway a pilot can see runway surface markings,” Syracuse Regional Airport Authority (SRAA) said in a Wednesday morning statement about the situation.
SRAA is operates Syracuse Hancock International Airport (SYR).
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“The new 5G network uses a segment of the radio spectrum that is close to that used by radio altimeters, which measure the height of aircraft above the ground and help pilots land in low visibility,” as described in an Associated Press (AP) report about the global impact of this 5G rollout.
Afternoon update
In a statement issued just before 2 p.m. Wednesday, SRAA said the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is expanding its exclusion zones around all impacted airports — including Hancock — from one mile to three miles, “within which 5G signal strength will be significantly reduced.”
This expansion should now qualify airports with those exclusion zones — including Syracuse — for AMOC operations, or alternative measures of compliance.
Aircraft manufacturers, such as Boeing, Embraer, and Airbus, are responsible for acquiring AMOCs from the FAA. As of this SRAA statement, about 45 percent of the commercial aircraft fleet have received approval for AMOCs and the aircraft manufacturers continue to seek additional AMOCs.
The SRAA continues to await FAA guidance regarding the list of affected airports and approaches. An approach is how airplanes navigate to the airport in low visibility situations, providing vertical and horizontal guidance to the runway without visual reference to the ground.
While certainly not guaranteed, SRAA expects Syracuse Hancock International Airport will be on the FAA list. That means aircraft types that have received an AMOC will be permitted to conduct low visibility operations at Hancock.
In the short term, it is expected that some aircraft types will not immediately receive an AMOC. Due to the Syracuse airport’s “diverse fleet mix,” the SRAA does expect some impacts to operations, although the precise level of impact is “difficult to quantify.”
“This is an incredibly unfortunate situation right now for our industry as a whole and most importantly, our passengers,” Jason Terreri, SRAA executive director, said. “The airport’s top priority remains the safe and efficient operation of our airfield. We remain in active discussions with industry groups, our representatives in Washington D.C., and our federal agency partners as we work to resolve this issue as quickly and safely as possible.”
The SRAA expects this fluid situation to “continue evolving rapidly” over the next 24-48 hours, per its early Wednesday afternoon statement.
The concern over the 5G rollout at airports is a global issue, as indicated by an AP report from the United Arab Emirates.
“Major international airlines canceled flights heading to the U.S. or changed the planes they’re using Wednesday, the latest complication in a dispute over concerns that new 5G mobile phone service could interfere with aircraft technology,” per the report from the AP’s Jon Gambrell.
Trade group response
SRAA also provided local media outlets with a list of frequently asked questions on the situation from Airports Council International – North America (ACI-NA), which is based in Washington, D.C.
The ACI-NA is the “voice of North American airports, representing local, regional and state governing bodies that own and operate commercial airports in the United States and Canada,” per its website.
One of the questions asked, “How did we get to this point? Wasn’t this preventable?”
Chris Oswald, senior VP, safety and regulatory affairs at ACI-NA, provided the following response.
“The aviation community has been monitoring the development and deployment of 5G since for years. It has been a major safety concern for us because of potential interference between 5G signals and aircraft instrumentation, specifically the radio altimeters that enable pilots to know precisely how far above the ground they are during low altitude flight. The U.S. Government had multiple opportunities over several years to work out reasonable plans for 5G operations. Instead, it chose to ignore repeated credible warnings from the aviation industry about the detrimental impacts these operations would have on the safety, reliability, and integrity of the air transportation system. It failed to act in the interest of millions of Americans that rely on the air transportation system.”
