On November 16, Catania International Airport, which serves eastern Sicily—one of Italy's most popular tourist destinations—suspended inbound flights due to ash from a fresh eruption of Mount Etna. Airport management said in a statement that the airspace above the ash cloud was closed because of the eruption and the volcanic ash released into the atmosphere.
According to the notice, arrivals at Catania Airport were halted until 12:00 local time (10:00 GMT). Departures, however, continued to operate normally. Webcam footage from Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, which monitors Etna, showed an ash column rising from the summit.
Mount Etna, standing at 3,324 meters, is Europe's most active volcano and has erupted frequently over the past half-million years. Since last July, due to increasingly intense eruptive activity, strict restrictions and ash warnings have been imposed, sparking protests from tourist guides who lead visitors up the mountain to see lava flows.
In January of this year, after Catania city authorities suspended or restricted lava-flow viewing tours, guides staged their first protest at the entrance to Etna's lava-flow area. They argued that the new restrictions were excessive and that the lava flows were moving slowly enough to be safely observed as they had been in the past. The National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology confirmed that, although eruptions continued, the fronts of the lava flows were cooling and not spreading further.
