Catania airport reopens after Etna ash forces week-long shutdown in peak tourist season

Reopening after alert downgrade

Catania's Fontanarossa airport resumed departing and arriving flights at 14:00 local time on Saturday, August 15, after the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) downgraded the volcanic aviation alert from red to orange. INGV reported weak ash emission confined to the summit area, with volcanic tremor at normal levels. The airport operator SAC reopened sectors C1 and B3, though the restart was gradual, with many connections still showing as cancelled or rerouted on tracking services. By Sunday, August 16, only a few flights still appeared cancelled on the airport's website, including some routes to Frankfurt and Munich, while most arrivals and departures proceeded as scheduled.

A week of paralysis

The airport had been nearly continuously paralyzed since August 7, with closures extended day by day from August 8 onward. Between August 6 and 12, nearly 2,000 flights were planned at Catania, and SAC reported that around 36 percent were cancelled. A total of 630 flights were diverted to other airports on the island. SAC described the impact on airport infrastructure as the worst in 20 years, worse than during the 2002 eruption. The disruption struck during the Ferragosto weekend, Italy's peak summer holiday, when trains, buses, and ferries were already saturated.

Causes of the disruption

INGV's Mario Mattia explained that the prolonged ash emission, combined with constant winds blowing south, drove ash directly over the airport. Etna, Europe's highest active volcano at over 3,300 meters, has erupted regularly for at least 500,000 years. The latest eruption began more than a week before the reopening and produced sustained ash output that made this episode particularly disruptive for aviation. When Catania closed, the effects rippled across Sicily, as passengers were redirected to Palermo, Trapani, or Comiso, saturating roads, railways, and ferries across an island of nearly five million inhabitants.

Economic and human toll

Preliminary estimates indicate the cancellations and diversions affected more than 100,000 travelers. Assoesercenti Sicilia, the tourism association, calculated economic losses at between 12 and 24 million euros. Passengers diverted to other airports faced long and costly journeys, with some transfers and car rentals costing up to 1,000 euros. Assoesercenti president Salvo Politino told Fanpage.it that passengers were left abandoned by all parties, not only the airlines.

“What we witnessed was the result solely and exclusively of improvisation, and this also gave space to forms of profiteering with transfers and rentals that cost up to one thousand euros.”

Politino called for a continuity pact for Sicily involving airlines, SAC, the regional government, travel agencies, and tour operators, activated when INGV alerts arrive.

Political reactions

Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini used the crisis to revive the proposed bridge over the Strait of Messina, arguing it would have allowed stranded travelers to reach the mainland faster. Tourism Minister Gianmarco Mazzi called the situation "recurrent" and said it was necessary to "be better prepared for the future." The eruption also drew tourists to Etna, where impressive lava flows could be observed up close. In 2024, about 12 million passengers transited through Catania international airport, which serves the eastern part of Sicily, one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations.