Catania Airport in Sicily, the island's main gateway, was forced to suspend all arrivals and departures on Monday after Mount Etna spewed volcanic ash that drifted over the airfield. The Etna Volcano Observatory issued a red VONA alert for the ash cloud, and airport authorities said flights would remain grounded until 10pm local time (9pm UK time). The closure matters because Catania is Italy's fifth-busiest airport, handling around 12 million passengers a year, and several UK carriers, including British Airways, easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz Air, fly the route.

This is the latest in a string of disruptions caused by increasingly frequent ash emissions from Etna, Europe's highest and most active volcano at 3,324 metres, roughly 40 kilometres from the airport. In August, the airport shut for five consecutive days, its longest closure since 2002, with 36 per cent of Catania-bound flights cancelled between 6 and 12 August and more than 600 diverted to airports including Palermo, Trapani, Comiso and Lamezia Terme. The repeated disruption has fuelled debate in Italy over whether Catania airport should be relocated or scaled back, with calls to expand alternative Sicilian hubs given the airport's proximity to the volcano.