Catania Airport Suspends Arrivals As Mount Etna Erupts

Catania international airport services the eastern part of Sicily, one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations. Due to Etna's eruptive activity and the associated release of volcanic ash into the atmosphere, the airspace corresponding to the cloud has been closed, Catania airport said in a statement on Saturday. All arriving flights at Catania Airport are suspended until 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT).

Departures of aircraft currently at the airport are operating normally, it added. A plume of smoke could also be seen billowing from the summit on a webcam on the website of the National Institute for Geophysics and Volcanology, which monitors Etna. At 3,324 metres (nearly 11,000 feet), Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe and has erupted frequently in the past half-million years. Tough restrictions and ash advisories have been in place since last July due to increasingly intense eruption activity and have led to demonstrations from guides who take tourists up the mountain to see the lava flow.