People affected by the mass cancellation of 176 flights from Wednesday to Friday along the southwestern coast of south China's Guangdong Province were informed yesterday that it had been caused by a military exercise conducted by the People’s Liberation Army.

A spokesperson for the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said regular services would resume tomorrow. There was no reported explanation of why it had not been possible to inform travelers in time for them to make alternative arrangements.

Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po reported that the drill, described as routine, was being staged near Yangjiang, a city in southwestern Guangdong.

Flights from Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai to Kunming, Dali and Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Haikou and Sanya in Hainan Province and Zhanjiang in Guangdong were all affected.

All flights between Guangzhou and Zhanjiang were canceled, a spokesperson for Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said.

Travelers, who had been offered no reason for the cancellations until yesterday, were offered discounts on their tickets.

Another unexplained short-notice cancellation of a China Southern Airlines route between Guangzhou, Kunming and Dali has also been announced. Services will be suspended until October 29, according to a spokesperson for the carrier, including the peak National Holiday period.

"We will call the passengers affected and advise them to change their flights," the spokesperson said, though China Daily reported that China Eastern Airlines flights on the same route were fully booked until October 9.

(China Daily September 23, 2005)