Mt Etna volcano shuts Italian airport, disrupting summer travel on Sicily

Mt Etna, Sicily's largest volcano has caused chaos for travellers this summer. Photo / Salvatore Allegra, AP

Flights in southern Italy were disrupted on Monday after Sicily’s Mt Etna volcano erupted, throwing summer travel into chaos.

Dramatic overnight eruptions subsided slightly on Monday morning, but volcanic ash continues to affect air traffic from the Island’s main airport of Catania.

The popular tourist destination in the Mediterranean grounded flights until Tuesday morning, with the airport operator apologising to travellers affected. Although there was a move to restart operations at Catania–Fontanarossa Airport on Monday evening, passengers were told to check with airlines before travelling.

This comes ahead of one of Italy’s public holidays and a busy time for domestic and international summer travel.

Catania–Fontanarossa Airport issued a statement that it would be restarting some flights at 8pm, but on monday departures showed around 95 per cent of flights had been cancelled.

Passengers already travelling found themselves being diverted to other landing strips on the island and in southern Italy.

Some disgruntled travellers found themselves diverted to Palermo airport, a five-hour drive from Catania, ahead of the public holiday travel schedules on Tuesday.

🔴🔴 Causa attività eruttiva dell’Etna e contestuale ricaduta di cenere vulcanica, le operazioni di volo sono sospese fino alle ore 20.
Per info contattare il vettore

Due to Etna’s eruptive activity and fallout of volcanic ash, flight operations are suspended until 08:00 pm

— Aeroporto di Catania (@CTAairport) August 14, 2023

Coach replacement travel was not an option for many travellers, as EuroNews noted: Sicily does not have a good public transport system.

Ryanair advised passengers that travellers faced “possible delays, diversion or cancellation of flights.” Easyjet had diverted some flights to Comiso airport, a two hour drive from Catania, but also cancelled services from England and Edinburgh. Turkish airlines also cancelled services to Catania.

Flight Radar 24 said that the area topped their disruption index, with most flights diverted or cancelled. Sharing the AIRMETS weather notice, there pilots were warned about the volcanic incident that was producing ash clouds affecting flights south of Sicily and east of Malta.

Flightradar24 shared delays and diversions at Catania Airport (CTA), saying it topped their aviaition disruption index. Photo / Twitter; Flightradar24

The airport has faced a disastrous summer of travel. Last month a fire at the terminals saw thousands of fares cancelled or diverted.

Airport authorities Aeroporto di Catania were blasted by locals and tourism businesses for their response with hoteliers claiming they had lost around 40,000 nights of accommodation were through disruption this summer.

The airport is periodically shut due to volcano, which affected flights earlier this year in May and February 2022.