Military exercises along the southwestern coast of South China's Guangdong Province have caused the cancellation of 176 flights from Wednesday to today.

A spokesperson for the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) confirmed the flight cancellations yesterday. The flights make up only part of the total between Guangdong and adjacent provinces.

The spokesperson said regular services would resume tomorrow. Air traffic control was the reason cited for the cancellations.

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

Travelers affected by cancellations were offered discounts on their tickets.

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

All flights between Guangzhou and Zhanjiang were cancelled during the three-day period, a spokesperson for Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said.

Another short-notice cancellation involves a China Southern Airlines route between Guangzhou, Kunming and Dali. Service will be suspended until October 29, according to a spokesperson for the carrier, who did not give a reason for the long cancellation period.

The flight will be unavailable during the seven-day National Day holiday between October 1 and 7, a peak period for tourism.

"We will call the passengers affected and advise them to change their flights," the spokesperson said.

China Eastern Airlines flights on the same route were fully booked until October 9.

(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2005)