Flights suspended in Catania, Sicily due to volcanic eruption

Catania airport on the Italian island of Sicily was closed on Friday after Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano, erupted and spewed ash into the sky, causing disruption to air traffic.

“The runway at Catania Airport is unusable due to volcanic ash rain: both arrivals and departures are suspended,” the airport company said in a statement.

Flights are expected to resume at 3 p.m., it said. Travelers were asked to check the status of their flight before heading to the airport.

Ash clouds shot up to 4.5 kilometers into the sky, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) wrote on Thursday on X, formerly Twitter.

Footage shared on social media on Friday shows streets in downtown Catania covered with a thick layer of black ash, causing traffic disruptions.

Mount Etna, a 3,324-meter-high volcano, has erupted several times in recent decades.

Over the past few days, the crater had begun to spew fountains of glowing lava and release ash that landed on Catania airport below.

Italian authorities also issued a red warning for another volcano north of Sicily, Stromboli on the island of the same name, whose eruption produced ash clouds.

Stromboli – with a height of 920 metres and a base 2,000 metres below sea level – is one of the few almost constantly active volcanoes in the world, according to INGV.

Catania Airport serves millions of passengers every year, connecting them to Eastern Sicily, one of Italy’s most popular tourist destinations.