Stargate Atlantis season four was pushed for the first time ever in the history of the franchise to a fall premiere. With this in mind it is reasonable to expect, that season five will also make its premiere debut in the fall of 2008.
However due to the current writers’ guild strike of America, production has been halted on the final season of Battlestar Galactica. Sci-fi had hoped to air the final season over the spring and summer of 2008.
With only 10 episodes of the season completing production before the writer’s guild strike officially shut down production, it is widely expected that Sci-Fi will delay the debut of the second half of the series to 2009.
Production on the fifth season of Stargate Atlantis continued, due to the show and the writers being based in Canada.
Whether this means Sci-Fi will choose to air season five in July is still unclear.