Catania avattiin – Etnan tuhka pysäytti matkustajat ja talouden keskellä sesonkia

Catania's Vincenzo Bellini Airport reopened on Saturday, August 15, 2026, after authorities downgraded Mount Etna's aviation alert level from red to orange . Flights restarted from around 12:00 GMT — earlier than the initially planned 3:00 p.m. Saturday deadline for arrivals . Here is what the week-long disruption looked like and what remains uncertain.

Scale of the disruption

• Total flights affected: More than 1,350 flights were disrupted over the week . Between August 6 and 12 alone, around 630 flights were diverted and over a third of scheduled operations were cancelled . Another tally put cancellations above 700 flights .
• Duration: The closure stretched from August 8 (with earlier stoppages on August 10, 12, 13, and 14) through the morning of August 15 — intermittent suspensions that dragged across the peak Ferragosto holiday period .
• Airport operator's description: SAC called it the worst disruption Catania had faced in 20 years .
• Comiso also hit: The ash cloud forced the temporary closure of Comiso airport in southeastern Sicily too, compounding the travel chaos across the island .

Fallout for travelers and Sicily's economy

• Stranded passengers: Thousands of travelers were left waiting inside Catania's terminal for days, with airlines (Ryanair, EasyJet, ITA Airways, Wizz Air, and others) cancelling or diverting dozens of flights . Many passengers faced long overland re-routes to Palermo or other connecting airports .
• Peak-season economic blow: The closures hit at the absolute peak of Sicily's summer tourist season, when Catania airport handles its highest passenger volumes . Steady southeasterly winds carried ash plumes from Etna's central craters directly over the airport, leaving no safe operating window .
• Wider transport strain: With two airports shut, road transportation links across the island came under heavy strain as travellers sought alternative routes .

Uncertainty about the recovery

• Etna still active: The volcanic alert was only downgraded to orange, not lifted entirely. The underlying eruptive activity had not stopped — ash emissions could intensify again with little warning and force a new round of closures .
• Runway conditions: Ash had accumulated on the runway; SAC warned the runway was "unusable due to volcanic ash fallout" during the closures, and it was not immediately clear how long full cleaning and safe operations would take .
• Lingering schedule chaos: Even with the airport open, airlines faced days of backlogged flights, displaced aircraft, and crew out of position, meaning normal schedules were unlikely to resume immediately .
• Economic cost unclear: No official tally of the economic loss to Sicily's tourism sector has been published yet, but the loss of a full week of arrivals at the busiest time of year is expected to run into tens of millions of euros .