Flights at Catania airport in Sicily will remain suspended until Saturday afternoon due to ash from the continued volcanic activity of Mount Etna, which has forced airlines to cancel or divert hundreds of flights over the past week.
All incoming and outgoing flights at the airport, Italy's fifth busiest by passenger numbers, will be suspended until 14pm on August 15, airport operator SAC said.
Passengers are advised to check the status of their flights with their airlines before going to the airport, Reuters reports.
The extended restrictions come at the height of the summer tourist season, affecting thousands of passengers and placing additional strain on other airports in Sicily.
Etna, the highest and most active volcano in Europe, frequently disrupts the operation of Catania airport, whose operator launched the sale of at least a 51 percent stake in May.
Volcanic ash is considered one of the most serious hazards to aviation, as it can damage aircraft systems and cause jet engines to fail. In 1982, a British Airways Boeing 747 temporarily lost power in all four engines after flying through an ash cloud from the Galungung volcano in Indonesia, before the crew was able to safely restart them.
The most serious disruption in the last two decades
The current disruptions are the most serious to hit Catania airport in at least the last two decades, according to sources at SAC cited by Italian news agency ANSA.
Between August 6 and 12, more than a third of the 1.974 flights scheduled in Catania were canceled, while around 630 flights were diverted to other airports.
Thousands of passengers were stranded due to the extended airport closure, and some spent days in the terminal, sleeping wherever they could and passing the time by playing cards.
"We were supposed to leave on Wednesday, but our flight was canceled; then they moved it to Friday. Now that flight is canceled too," said Antonella Tirande Warnakulasuriya Costa from the Sicilian city of Messina, who is traveling to Sri Lanka via Dubai.
Mateus Paulo Neto from João Pessoa, Brazil, said multiple flight schedule changes turned the end of his vacation into a frustrating experience.
"Our flight has been changed twice and we are trying to get to Olbia in Sardinia, but no one has helped us. We have no information, only emails that do not explain everything about the changes," he said.
The forced closure has reignited a long-standing debate in Sicily over whether the main airport in the east of the island is too exposed to Mount Etna's frequent eruptions.
"It is difficult to deny that the events of recent days point to one conclusion: it is not the volcano in the wrong place, but the airport," Civil Protection Minister and former Sicilian governor Nello Muzzumeci said in a statement.
"The problem is real and deserves serious, long-term consideration when planning major infrastructure," he added.
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