2020-12-15T23:27:00+00:00
Airline groups are rallying behind a broadly-supported bill that would benefit airline workers by extending financial aid to struggling US carriers.
The Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act of 2020 is the US Congress’s latest pandemic relief proposal, but this one enjoys support from legislators representing both political parties and both houses of Congress.
The bill would extend through the end of March 2021 the “Payroll Support Program” (PSP), setting aside funds for US airline workers, according to a summary sheet released by the office of Senator Susan Collins.
Source: Delta Air Lines
Delta Air Lines Airbus A350
Provisions in the bill would prohibit airlines that take funds from buying back stock or dividends, and would limit executive compensation.
A group of 15 aviation associations recently sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) expressing concern over frequency spectrum relocation affecting radar altimeters, a critical flight safety tool.
The group asked the FCC to suspend Auction 107, which began Dec. 8, 2020, despite the protests. The auction offers new flexible-use overlay licenses for spectrum in the 3.7–3.98 GHz band. GA alphabet groups want the FCC to resolve likely interference issues with radar altimeters before the auction.
“Since 2017, the aviation industry has consistently noted during the Federal Communications Commission rulemaking process that deployment of 5G networks in this frequency band may introduce harmful radio frequency interference to radar altimeters currently operating in the globally-allocated 4.2–4.4 GHz aeronautical band,” the GA associations wrote. “Radar altimeters are deployed on tens of thousands of civil aircraft in the United States and worldwide to suppor