Nigerian passengers going to the United States may experience hitches with connecting flights in Europe, Middle East and other major hubs’ airport as major airlines cancelled and rescheduled their flights to the United over 5G rollout in the US on Wednesday.
CNN reports that major international airlines announced suspension and modification of flights to the US amid uncertainty about potential interference between new 5G cell phone services and critical airplane technologies.
Major airlines such as Emirates, Air India, All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa and British Airways have announced changes to some flights, citing concerns over 5G deployment in the US.
Emirates said it would suspend flights into nine US airports: Boston, Chicago O’Hare, Dallas Fort Worth, George Bush Intercontinental in Houston, Miami, Newark, Orlando, San Francisco and Seattle. It said it would continue flying into New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, Los Angeles International and Washington Dulles.
“We are working closely with aircraft manufacturers and the relevant authorities to alleviate operational concerns, and we hope to resume our US services as soon as possible,” Emirates said in its statement.
Germany’s Lufthansa canceled a flight between Frankfurt and Miami. It said it would swap Boeing 747-8 aircraft for 747-400s on flights from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.
A spokesperson for British Airways told CNN Business that it “had to make a handful of cancellations” because a decision by telecom operators to delay activating the new 5G service at some locations didn’t cover all the airports the airline serves.
Other carriers including Virgin Atlantic and Air France-KLM said they had not canceled any flights but were monitoring the situation.
Delta Air Lines said it was planning for the possibility of weather-related cancellations as early as Wednesday due to the new 5G service in the vicinity of dozens of US airports.
Bad weather affecting visibility necessitates the use of altimeters which is now threatened by the deployment of 5G near the airports. Because of possible interference pilots have been advised not to use the technology during landing in affected airports.
Delta Airlines and United Airlines, which fly directly from Nigeria to US, were yet to announce any changes to their flights as of Wednesday.
