5G flight disruption eases as Emirates blasts US rollout

Disruption to US-bound air travel caused by the rollout of 5G services in the United States eased on Wednesday as authorities approved more flights, but a top airline warned "irresponsible" regulatory confusion would be felt internationally for days. Airlines and telecom companies have been at loggerheads over the deployment of 5G mobile services over concerns that the powerful signals could interfere with airplane systems. Carriers across Asia, the Middle East and Europe cancelled flights to the United States or switched planes at the last minute on Tuesday and Wednesday, disrupting travel for thousands of passengers, over safety concerns caused by the 5G deployment. But Japanese carriers said late on Wednesday they would restore cancelled flights and US airlines said thousands of planes were operating normally after two telecom carriers agreed to delay the rollout at key airports. The decision late on Tuesday by AT&T and Verizon Communications to delay switching on new telecom masts near key airports, just hours ahead of a wider US rollout, came too late to avoid a ripple of cancellations. Much of the initial disruption hit the Boeing 777, for decades a workhorse of long-distance air travel. Dubai's Emirates, the world's largest international passenger carrier and the largest 777 operator, hit out at "mixed messages" as it suspended nine US destinations.<br/>The airline's longstanding president Tim Clark told CNN it had not been aware of the extent of the safety concerns until Tuesday and let rip at what he called it "one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible" episodes in his career. Some 32,000 Emirates passengers over the next three days "will be completely inconvenienced as a result of flight cancellations," Clark said, adding the message about safety risks had "got through at a very, very late stage".<br/>