There isn't any need to cover airports with C band 5G. There are already so many 5G frequencies that other frequencies can cover airports and the area immediately surrounding the airport. I imagine they'll be able to resolve this issue via retrofits of aircraft with poorly designed receivers, but if not there are other alternatives that will work well.
For one, airports are the perfect place for mmwave 5G, which is designed for denser areas (airports have a ton of people in a small space) but have limited range and require line of sight (not an issue for an airport, which have wide open areas with high ceilings that could probably be covered by a handful of mmwave microcells) Sure the US is AFAIK still the only place deploying mmwave 5G (and hence the only place where iPhones include mmwave 5G antennas) but since this particular issue involves the US it seems like a good solution.
If they say "no C band 5G within 5 miles of an airport" then other bands can cover the area around the airport, and mmwave can cover the airport itself.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
