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. The cancellations were announced on September 17, but no explanation was given for them until yesterday.

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.

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

(China Daily September 23, 2005)