Airlines for America, a trade group for U.S. carriers, said AT&T (T) – Get AT&T Inc. Report and Verizon’s (VZ) – Get Verizon Communications Inc. Report refusal to postpone new 5G service could cause major flight delays.
“Without appropriate mitigations, the 5G deployment around airports could disrupt as many as 345,000 passenger flights — impacting 32 million travelers — in addition to 5,400 cargo flights each year in the form of delays, diversions or cancellations,” Airlines for America said in a statement Sunday.
The Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration had asked the telecommunications giants to delay 5G introduction from a scheduled Jan. 5 launch because the service may disrupt aircraft electronics.
Verizon and AT&T declined, saying jointly that delaying the 5G rollout would represent “an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks.”
The companies did say they would consider a six-month delay near some airports.
Airline stocks rose Monday, with American Airlines (AAL) – Get American Airlines Group, Inc. Report gaining 0.84% to $18.11, United Airlines (UAL) – Get United Airlines Holdings, Inc. Report gaining 1.26% to $44.33, and Delta Air Lines (DAL) – Get Delta Air Lines, Inc. Report 0.61% to $39.32.
Verizon recently traded at $52.14, up 0.35%, and AT&T at $24.75, up 0.61%.
Morningstar analyst Michael Hodel puts fair value at $58 for Verizon, New York.
“Verizon’s efforts to attract and retain customers while promoting higher-end rate plans created solid momentum during the third quarter, driving strong wireless service and Fios revenue growth,” he wrote in an October commentary. “Revenue per customer is growing faster than we’d anticipated.”
But he said he continues to prefer AT&T on a valuation basis, putting fair value for the Dallas telecom giant at $36.
“AT&T’s third-quarter earnings displayed several of…