China deployed dozens of aircraft and fired live missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its largest ever drills in the Taiwan Strait, which will last until noon local time (0400 GMT) on Sunday in six zones surrounding much of the island. read more The airspace involved is relatively small, but the disruption from China’s biggest military exercises in the region since it fired missiles off its coast in 1996 has hampered travel between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Temporary airspace closures and route changes during major military exercises occur regularly around the world. This situation is unusual as China’s drills bisect Taiwan’s 12 nautical miles (22 km) of territorial waters – which Taiwanese officials say defies international order and amounts to a blockade of its sea and airspace. read more Korean Air Lines Co Ltd ( 003490.KS ) and Singapore Airlines Ltd ( SIAL.SI ) said they canceled flights to and from Taipei on Friday because of the exercises, with the Korean carrier also canceling Saturday flights and delaying the Sunday flights. Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc ( 9202.T ) and Japan Airlines Co Ltd ( 9201.T ) are still operating flights to Taipei as normal, airline representatives said, but are avoiding the affected airspace on those flights as well as routes to Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd ( 0293.HK ) and Philippines Airlines said their flights were avoiding designated airspace zones around Taiwan, in a move that could lead to longer flight time for some flights, while the Vietnam’s aviation regulator warned its airlines to avoid the area. read more Flight tracker FlightRadar24 showed Taiwanese carriers China Airlines Ltd ( 2610.TW ) and EVA Airways Corp ( 2618.TW ) were still flying to and from the island as of Friday morning, as was cargo carrier FedEx Corp ( FDX.N ) and United Parcel Service Inc ( UPS.N ), although it avoids areas affected by military exercises. Emirates, United Airlines Holdings Inc ( UAL.O ) and Turkish Airlines had flights to Taipei on Friday morning local time, according to Flightradar24. Taiwan, along with mainland China and Hong Kong, is one of the few places in the world that still requires quarantine for arrivals due to COVID-19, causing reduced demand for travel to the island which means there are far fewer flights than , what before the pandemic. OPSGROUP, an aviation industry cooperative that shares information on flight risks, said the exercises would significantly affect routes between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, leading to rerouting that could take longer and burn extra fuel. The airspace involved, however, is small in its impact on the global airline industry compared to the decision by most airlines to bypass overflights in other places such as Russia, Ukraine, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iraq and Syria. Avoiding Russian airspace, for example, led to an almost four-hour increase in flight time between Finland and Japan. read more Taiwan said on Wednesday it was negotiating with neighboring Japan and the Philippines to find alternative air routes, the official Central News Agency (CNA) reported. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Joyce Lee in Seoul and Jamie Freed in Sydney. Additional reporting by Maki Shiraki in Tokyo, Neil Jerome Morales in Manila, Khanh Vu in Hanoi and Twinnie Siu in Hong Kong. Editor: Kenneth Maxwell Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.