Tourists are hoping for a return to normal after cancellations hit Sicily's international airport following a powerful volcanic eruption.
Countless flights have been delayed at Catania airport since Wednesday after Mount Etna sent plumes of smoke more than 10km into the sky, covering runways in a thick layer of ash and debris.
Ryanair, British Airways and easyJet are among the major airlines affected by this situation, which have had no choice but to cancel their flights to and from Catania. However, it appears that airport operations have resumed as normal.
“#CTA airport runway is unusable due to volcanic ash fallout: arrivals and departures are suspended,” the airport said on X on Thursday, according to a translation from The Independent“It is currently estimated that flight operations will resume at 6:00 p.m. Please do not proceed to the airport without checking the status of your flight.”
Although this has not yet received official confirmation, the recordings show that a number of flights took off from Catania airport this morning, including an easyJet flight to London.
The chaos in Catania was a further blow to tourists, following several other problems at European airports over the past week. On Wednesday, easyJet announced it was having to cancel 232 flights to and from Portugal due to a cabin crew strike.
Meanwhile, more than 300 flights have been cancelled at Mallorca's Palma Son Sant Joan airport as the Spanish tourist destination faces storms.
This included 150 flights on Wednesday, 180 on Thursday and ten on Friday, according to the Mallorca Daily Bulletinleaving tourists completely stranded on the island.
Mallorca Airport, however, informed passengers on Friday that most delays were now limited to “less than 30 minutes”. “Today (August 16), operations at Palma airport are gradually returning to normal. Although many flights continue to experience delays, most are now limited to less than 30 minutes, which is a substantial improvement on the disruptions of previous days,” it said.
The airport has been criticised for the scale of delays and cancellations over the past 48 hours. However, a spokesperson has defended the measures taken by the airport, stressing that passenger safety remains the top priority and cannot be compromised under any circumstances.
“Although the worst of the severe weather appears to have passed, a yellow warning for rain and thunderstorms remains in effect until 6pm Friday, downgraded from Thursday's orange warning.”
