US FAA granted 5G waivers overnight to minimize flight delays

U.S. aviation regulators issued approvals allowing a popular Boeing Co. widebody jet to continue operations as the first day of a new 5G service began with only modest flight disruption. 

The Federal Aviation Administration gave the Boeing 777 at least a partial clearance to continue flying Wednesday after the company had earlier warned operators of the jet that they shouldn’t fly to airports where 5G signals were present, said two people familiar with the action. They were prohibited from speaking publicly about the matter. 

Japan Airlines Co. Ltd. and ANA Holdings Inc., Japan’s two largest airlines, canceled some flights to the U.S. this week as a result of Boeing’s warning. 

As of noon ET, no U.S. airport had more than 5% of its arrivals delayed, according to the FlightAware tracking website. 

AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday agreed to additional limits on broadcasting 5G wireless signals near U.S. airports in talks with the FAA. The companies activated their new mobile-phone service on Wednesday after twice agreeing to delays so that impacts on aviation could be minimized. 

The FAA has said that the new 5G frequencies are close enough to those used by radar altimeters on thousands of aircraft that they could interfere with the devices.