Flights have resumed for travellers due to fly to or from Sicily’s Catania Airport following a day of diverted and cancelled journeys after Mount Etna erupted on Wednesday evening (14 August).
Catania Aiport shared on X/Twitter on Thursday: “The runway at #CTAairport is unusable due to volcanic ash fallout: both arrivals and departures are suspended.
“It is currently estimated that flight activities will resume at 18:00. Do not go to the airport without checking the status of your flight.”
The Sicilian aviation hub – sat at the foot of Etna in east Sicily – reopened late last night, with flights arriving and departing as usual this morning.
British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair were among the airlines forced to cancel flights to Catania yesterday.
Nearby villages were coated in black volcanic ash as lava flowed from Etna, one of the world’s most active volcanoes.
Take-off operations resumed last night from 6pm, with arrivals capped at two per hour until 8pm.
Arrivals and departures then continued as usual from 11pm following the “cleaning and decontamination of the runway and movement area”.
Some inbound flights were diverted away from Sicily’s busiest airport to Palermo and Comiso.
The travel disruption coincides with the height of the UK summer holidays and Ferragosto, a public national holiday in Italy.
It’s one of several times this year that activity on Etna has caused disruptions for Sicily’s aviation hubs.
Increased seismic activity in the area has been reported by the Italian Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology (INGV) since the start of July.
Just a few weeks ago, 15,000 passengers faced severe travel disruption after flights were cancelled and diverted at Catania.
Europe’s highest active volcano saw increased activity, with the INGV in Catania saying ash had reached 2.7 miles in height.
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