Italian minister says Catania airport is in the 'wrong place' as volcanic ash causes travel chaos

Musumeci revives plan to relocate Fontanarossa airport as volcanic ash grounds hundreds of flights and losses to Sicily's tourism sector mount towards €24 million. Italy's civil protection minister, Nello Musumeci, has reignited debate over the location of Catania's Fontanarossa airport, arguing that the scale of disruption caused by Mount Etna's latest eruption reflects a decades-old planning failure rather than simple bad luck. "It's not the volcano that's in the wrong place but the airport," Musumeci told the Italian news agency ANSA as the airport entered its sixth consecutive day of disruption on Thursday. Flights to and from Catania remained suspended until at least 02.00 on Friday, after operator SAC extended the closure of the airspace's B3 sector because of continuing ash emissions from Etna. Cancelled flights Since the eruption began on 8 August, roughly 700 flights have been cancelled or failed to arrive, with airlines including Ryanair, EasyJet, ITA Airways and Wizz Air among the most affected. More than 250 flights have been diverted to Palermo, Trapani and the nearby airport of Comiso, which is also run by SAC. Trade body Assoesercenti has estimated the cost to Sicily's tourism sector at up to €24 million, with more than 100,000 travellers affected during the peak summer season. A three-decade-old proposal Musumeci, a former president of the Sicily region and former head of Catania province, said he had first flagged the airport's vulnerability in 1999, when as provincial president he included a proposal to relocate the airport in Catania's territorial plan. At the time, he commissioned a preliminary study for a new "central" airport on the plain between Catania and Enna, designed to serve seven of Sicily's nine provinces without exposure to volcanic disruption. The plan never advanced, Musumeci said, first for lack of political and financial backing, and later - during his time as regional president - due to resistance from the airport's management company and indifference from local authorities. He noted that air traffic and tourist flows have grown "enormously" since then, while Etna's eruptions continue periodically to disrupt operations at eastern Sicily's airports and damage their reputation for reliability. The minister stopped short of endorsing his old plan as the solution today, saying he does not have "the authority to decide" on infrastructure choices, but called for "serious, far-sighted reflection" on how Sicily plans its major transport infrastructure for the next 20 to 30 years. What is on the table Officially, the preferred route is not relocation but upgrading Fontanarossa. A €330 million project, funded through Italy's national recovery plan and other state funds, is under way to bury a railway line and extend the runway from 2,436 to 3,100 metres, allowing larger, fully loaded intercontinental aircraft to use the airport - though this would not eliminate the risk from ash. Other options occasionally discussed but never formally adopted include reopening the disused Gerbini military airstrip on the Catania plain or building an entirely new hub in central Sicily, between Enna and Caltanissetta, away from volcanic risk but further from the main population centres. Comiso airport In the meantime, Comiso airport - located around 90 km southwest of Catania airport - has absorbed more than 140 diverted flights since the current emergency began, though it too has been forced to suspend operations at times when winds pushed ash towards the south-west. Sicily's regional president, Renato Schifani, said the region - which has no direct authority over air traffic control - was working with transport operators and civil protection services to ease disruption for stranded passengers. Trade unions have called for urgent talks on a shared emergency protocol between rail, road and air transport to avoid repeated ad hoc responses to future eruptions. Car hire prices Consumer group Codacons has separately reported car hire price rises of up to 287% for passengers travelling between Catania and Comiso, and has asked Italy's competition authority to investigate possible profiteering.Volcanologists at Italy's national geophysics institute, INGV, say Etna's eruptive activity remains strong, with ash continuing to disperse towards the south from the Voragine crater.

WIRE — Musumeci revives plan to relocate Fontanarossa airport as volcanic ash grounds hundreds of flights and losses to Sicily's tourism sector mount towards €24 million. Italy's civil protection minister, Nello Musumeci, has reignited debate over the location of Catania's Fontanarossa airport, arguing that the scale of disruption caused by Mount Etna's latest eruption reflects a decades-old planning failure rather than simple bad luck. "It's not the volcano that's in the wrong place but the airport," Musumeci told the Italian news agency ANSA as the airport entered its sixth consecutive day of disruption on Thursday. Flights to and from Catania remained suspended until at least 02.00 on Friday, after operator SAC extended the closure of the airspace's B3 sector because of continuing ash emissions from Etna. Cancelled flights Since the eruption began on 8 August, roughly 700 flights have been cancelled or failed to arrive, with airlines including Ryanair, EasyJet, ITA Airways and Wizz Air among the most affected. More than 250 flights have been diverted to Palermo, Trapani and the nearby airport of Comiso, which is also run by SAC. Trade body Assoesercenti has estimated the cost to Sicily's tourism sector at up to €24 million, with more than 100,000 travellers affected during the peak summer season. A three-decade-old proposal Musumeci, a former president of the Sicily region and former head of Catania province, said he had first flagged the airport's vulnerability in 1999, when as provincial president he included a proposal to relocate the airport in Catania's territorial plan. At the time, he commissioned a preliminary study for a new "central" airport on the plain between Catania and Enna, designed to serve seven of Sicily's nine provinces without exposure to volcanic disruption. The plan never advanced, Musumeci said, first for lack of political and financial backing, and later - during his time as regional president - due to resistance from the airport's management company and indifference from local authorities. He noted that air traffic and tourist flows have grown "enormously" since then, while Etna's eruptions continue periodically to disrupt operations at eastern Sicily's airports and damage their reputation for reliability. The minister stopped short of endorsing his old plan as the solution today, saying he does not have "the authority to decide" on infrastructure choices, but called for "serious, far-sighted reflection" on how Sicily plans its major transport infrastructure for the next 20 to 30 years. What is on the table Officially, the preferred route is not relocation but upgrading Fontanarossa. A €330 million project, funded through Italy's national recovery plan and other state funds, is under way to bury a railway line and extend the runway from 2,436 to 3,100 metres, allowing larger, fully loaded intercontinental aircraft to use the airport - though this would not eliminate the risk from ash. Other options occasionally discussed but never formally adopted include reopening the disused Gerbini military airstrip on the Catania plain or building an entirely new hub in central Sicily, between Enna and Caltanissetta, away from volcanic risk but further from the main population centres. Comiso airport In the meantime, Comiso airport - located around 90 km southwest of Catania airport - has absorbed more than 140 diverted flights since the current emergency began, though it too has been forced to suspend operations at times when winds pushed ash towards the south-west. Sicily's regional president, Renato Schifani, said the region - which has no direct authority over air traffic control - was working with transport operators and civil protection services to ease disruption for stranded passengers. Trade unions have called for urgent talks on a shared emergency protocol between rail, road and air transport to avoid repeated ad hoc responses to future eruptions. Car hire prices Consumer group Codacons has separately reported car hire price rises of up to 287% for passengers travelling between Catania and Comiso, and has asked Italy's competition authority to investigate possible profiteering.Volcanologists at Italy's national geophysics institute, INGV, say Etna's eruptive activity remains strong, with ash continuing to disperse towards the south from the Voragine crater.

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