A new eruption of the volcano Etna, located on the Italian island of Sicily (south), today forced the suspension of all operations of the airport of the nearby city of Catania until Sunday, due to the huge ash cloud it generated.
© Giuseppe Di Stefano/Etna Walk/via REUTERS
26/09/2026
by
Lusa
Initially, the company managing the airport (SAC) had limited activity at the airport until the end of the afternoon, but eventually chose to “suspend all flight operations, both arrivals and departures, until noon on Sunday”.
“ Passengers are asked to consult the airline on the state of their flight before going to the airport,” SAC asked in a press release released on social networks.
The Observatory of the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology (INGV) had issued, in the morning, a red warning, the highest level of the alert scale due to this new eruption.
The body confirms in its bulletin the presence of a cloud of volcanic ash four kilometres high above sea level, which moves south, where the city of Catania is located.
However, in addition to this eruption, the Sicilian city experienced a heavy rainstorm.
The Etna is a very active volcano that usually causes problems in the operation of airports of neighboring cities, the last time was this Thursday.
This year, its continuous eruptions since August 7 caused chaos in the middle of summer, as the burning of ashes forced the cancellation and diversion of numerous flights in Sicily.