Pilots first heard about a Chinese live-fire naval exercise near Australia last week when already in the air, receiving messages that forced some to change paths through a busy air corridor, satellite text messages to and from pilots seen by Reuters show.

Qantas and its subsidiary budget airline Jetstar temporarily adjusted some flights between Australia and New Zealand, industry sources said. Virgin Australia was also heeding the advice, while Air New Zealand said it had "modified flight paths as needed to ...