Cheat sheet: Chinese live-fire exercises divert trans-Tasman flights
Monday, 24 February 2025
In an unprecedented move, three Chinese warships sailed into the Tasman Sea and advised they were carrying out live-fire exercises on Friday and Saturday, causing some commercial airlines to make mid-flight changes to their planned routes.
What official information do we have about these exercises?
NZ Defence Force said that on Friday, a vessel from the Chinese task group broadcast a safety message indicating their intent to conduct live firing activity in its vicinity. Due to the lack of advanced notification of the firing, by standard practice of providing a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM), this activity caused several commercial aircraft to divert course.
Airservices Australia issued notices of potential hazards to aircraft.
The Australian Department of Defence said no weapon firings were heard or seen on Friday, but a floating surface firing target was deployed by the ships and subsequently recovered.
On Saturday afternoon the task group transmitted a radio message of its intention to conduct live firing, NZDF said.
During Saturday’s live firing event, personnel on the Navy frigate Te Kaha reported observing the Chinese cruiser Zunyi firing its main gun.
How many flights were affected?
Most of the airlines haven’t been willing to provide detailed information, but it’s been widely reported that three passenger flights from Sydney to Christchurch or Queenstown were in the air on Friday when they were first warned by a Chinese warship of a live-fire exercise. The flights diverted and there’s been no suggestion there was any danger.
Emirates has provided more information than other airlines, confirming its flight EK 412 was affected.
“When a change in air space activity was detected, the flight deck crew on EK 412 (21 February) made a slight routing deviation as per standard industry protocol and in conjunction with air traffic control, to maintain optimal safety margins,” the airline said in a statement.
Flight tracking data on the FlightAware site shows Emirates flight EK 412 and a Qantas flight QF 121 - from Sydney to Queenstown - diverting from the direct route to their destinations.
The Emirates flight left Sydney at 11.39am Friday (NZT) and arrived at 2.21pm in Christchurch. QF 121 is shown leaving Sydney at 11.50am and arriving in Queenstown at 2.35pm. Both flights made diversions about the same place off the southern coast of New South Wales.
The Australian Financial Review reported Friday’s live-fire exercise was carried out about 640km east of Eden, a town on the southern New South Wales coast near the Victorian border.
A Virgin Australia flight was also reportedly affected.
What are the airlines saying?
Other than Emirates, not a lot.
Air New Zealand simply said it had “modified flight paths where necessary to avoid the area, with no impact on our operations”.
Virgin Australia said it was following instructions from Airservices Australia and continued to operate its schedule in line with those instructions.
Qantas said it, and its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar, continually monitored the airspace in which their aircraft operated and had temporarily adjusted some flights across the Tasman.
They continued to work with the Australian government and broader industry to monitor the situation. There had been no disruption to flights.
Is China allowed to do this?
The leaders of Australia and New Zealand, Anthony Albanese and Christopher Luxon, have said the live fire drills are consistent with international law, although Luxon suggested there might be a better place to do them than in busy international airspace.