Mount Etna ash plume forces Catania airport to suspend flights until 22:00
A four-kilometre volcanic ash plume from Mount Etna forced Italy's Catania airport to shut airspace sectors C1 and B3 on Monday, halting arrivals and departures until at least 22:00 local time.
Airspace closed across eastern Sicily
Operations at Catania-Fontanarossa Airport halted on Monday, 14 September, after Mount Etna produced a volcanic ash column rising 4 kilometres into the atmosphere. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) issued a red Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation, the fourth and highest alert tier on the scale. Upper-level winds pushed the eruptive cloud southward directly over the approach corridors of the airport. Airport operator SAC initially suspended all inbound flights until 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) while closing airspace sector C1. By late morning, management expanded the restrictions to include sector B3 and halted both arrival and departure operations until at least 22:00 local time.
- Mount Etna begins its latest eruptive phase at summit craters
- INGV issues red aviation notice as ash plume rises 4 kilometres
- SAC announces suspension of incoming flights until 16:00 local time
- SAC closes airspace sectors C1 and B3, extending full flight halt to 22:00
Safety concerns and flight cancellations
The shutdown forced the cancellation of at least 50 scheduled flights and triggered diversions of domestic and international services to alternative airports across Sicily, including Palermo to the north, Comiso to the south, and Trapani to the west. While an evening Edelweiss flight to Zurich remained listed as on schedule, an EasyJet flight bound for Basel was cancelled, leaving passengers stranded in the passenger terminal. Volcanic ash presents acute risks to jet aviation because abrasive silicate particles can be drawn into aircraft turbines, potentially causing engine stalls and damaging navigation electronics.
Volcanic ash can be a great risk for aircraft. It can be sucked into the motors, and force them to stall. This is why everyone is so very cautious with aircraft when there is a volcanic ash emission.
Volcanic activity at the summit
Etna, Europe's highest active volcano with a summit elevation of 3,324 metres, initiated this latest eruptive episode on Sunday, 13 September. Monitoring scientists at INGV reported near-continuous ash emissions emerging from the volcano's northeast crater. Volcanologists indicated that the current activity could escalate without significant warning.
A rapid evolution of the current phenomena towards stronger activity, with the formation of eruption columns and ash clouds, as well as the collapse of parts of the summit cones, cannot be ruled out.
Repeated summer travel disruptions
Catania operates as Italy's fifth-busiest airport, processing approximately 12 million passengers annually from its location 30 kilometres south of Etna. The Monday closure follows recurrent volcanic disruptions that affected Sicilian airspace throughout July and August. An eruption that began on 7 August shut the facility for five consecutive days during the Ferragosto holiday period, marking the longest operational emergency at Catania since 2002. Between 6 and 12 August, SAC reported that 36% of nearly 2,000 scheduled arrivals were cancelled, while more than 600 flights were rerouted to Palermo, Trapani, Comiso, and Lamezia Terme on the Italian mainland. More than 100,000 holidaymakers were affected during that August event, with ash clouds spreading as far as Malta and Libya. Those disruptions led Italian consumer protection group Codacons to lodge an official price-gouging complaint with antitrust regulators after local taxi and car-rental prices climbed steeply, while renewing calls among regional officials to expand alternative airports across Sicily.
