Updated 8.15pm
Frustrated travellers were stranded at Malta International Airport on Monday afternoon as Catania airport closed due to the eruption of Mount Etna.
Some 135 passengers were redirected to Malta after a scheduled flight from London Southend, supposed to stop off in Catania at 2.30pm, instead flew directly to Malta.
While another flight from Malta to Catania, en route to Rome, was scheduled to leave at 5.50pm, it was not clear whether the flight would depart.
Passengers told Times of Malta that staff had been unable to give them the information they needed, and variously told them that the flight would leave to Catania a few hours later, that it would be redirected to Comiso airport, which is unaffected, or that it would bypass Sicily altogether.
The flight eventually started boarding at around 8pm and was expected to land in Catania.
Earlier, an argument broke out at one point when passengers were advised to fly to Rome and make their own arrangements to fly to Sicily on Christmas morning.
“We do understand the Mount Etna eruption is an extraordinary event, but we would’ve expected a better treatment,” one passenger said.
“There are elderly people and a few…
