Catania airport on the Italian island of Sicily was closed on Friday due to the eruption of Mount Etna, Europe’s largest active volcano, sending ash through the airspace.
“The runway cannot be used due to significant amounts of volcanic ash fallout. Consequently, arrivals and departures are suspended,” the Catania airport management company said in a statement.
Flights are expected to resume at 15:00 local time (14:00 in Lisbon), he said in a note.
Etna, 3,324 metres high, has erupted frequently over the past 500,000 years. In recent days, its central crater has been spewing lava flows and ash clouds that have rained down on the nearby Catania airport.
The ash reached a height of 4.5 kilometers, Italy’s National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) reported on Thursday on the social network X.
Images posted on social media Friday showed streets in central Catania covered in thick layers of black ash, causing traffic jams.
Italian authorities have also issued a red alert for another volcano, Stromboli, located on the island of the same name in the Aeolian archipelago (north of Sicily), whose eruption has produced significant ash clouds.
The volcano, which reaches a peak of 920 metres and has a base 2,000 metres below sea level, is one of the few in the world that is almost continuously active, according to INGV.
Millions of passengers pass through Catania International Airport every year, serving eastern Sicily, one of Italy’s most popular tourist destinations.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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