CHINA will conduct a military exercise in its southeast coastal areas starting tomorrow, the Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday.

    The maneuver, which is part of the Chinese armed forces’ routine training, is important for testing combat capability and improving real-combat training levels and military preparation, the ministry said in a statement.

    Both military and civil aviation management authorities have taken measures to minimize the exercise’s impact on civil flights by opening temporary air routes, allocating protection airspace, and setting down alternative deviation plans, according to the statement.

    Military exercises only have a limited impact on civil aviation, it said, adding that they are not the major factor behind recent flight delays, which were mainly the result of meteorological conditions.

    The armed forces have been taking measures to cut military activities’ influence on civil aviation in recent years and will continue to do so in the future, according to the statement.

    Major airlines yesterday announced adjustments and cancellations of flights after severe weather and air traffic controls caused massive delays in eastern and central China.

    China Eastern Airlines said some flights in Nanjing and Shanghai would be likely to be delayed or canceled in the next few days.

    Another company, China Southern Airlines, said flights from Shanghai to Xiamen, Fuzhou, Taiwan and other central and southern regions were affected yesterday, with the capacity of some airways in Shanghai dropping by 30 percent.

    On Saturday, China’s airline regulator issued an orange alert for massive flight delays in eastern and central China, saying the traffic capacity of some routes might drop as much as 65 percent.

    “The airspace in East China will be quite busy Saturday,” the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said in a statement, noting at least 23 airports would be affected, including those in Shanghai, Nanjing, Nanchang, Hefei, Zhengzhou and Wenzhou.

    The CAAC said in an earlier statement that “rainstorms, routine military exercises and other comprehensive factors” were behind widespread flight delays and cancellations.

    In Shanghai, the air traffic’s busy hours lasted between 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and between 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, reducing air traffic capacity by 65 percent.

    During the same period, the civil flight handling capacity in airspace above the Zhengzhou area dropped by 60 percent, according to CAAC.

    During busy hours, flights were unable to land at airports in the cities of Linyi, Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Huai’an, Yancheng, Changzhou, Yangzhou and Nantong, while flights departing for airports in Nanchang, Ganzhou, Jiujiang, Yichun, Jinggangshan, Jingdezhen, Wuyishan and Wenzhou were not allowed to take off.

    (Xinhua)