Catania airport: Advice for travellers as airport stays closed until Tuesday

Flights at Catania airport, on the southern Italian island of Sicily, have been severely disrupted after a fire. No one was injured and the cause of the fire remains unclear.

The airport was meant to reopen earlier this week but authorities have now said that Terminal A, where the fire happened, will reopen in early August. From 26 July, flights will gradually increase.

In the mean time, many flights are being cancelled or diverted to other airports in Sicily, which are struggling to cope with the sudden increase in passengers.

Catania's Vincenzo Bellini Airport serves 91 destinations of which 24 are domestic, according to ItaliaRimborso. 100,000s passengers are predicted to be affected by the disruption.

The situation at Catania airport is creating chaos for both inbound and outbound travellers during Sicily's busy summer season.

The airport's Terminal C is still operational, but only four flights are landing per hour until 26 July. This is then set to increase to 10 flights per hour. A temporary structure will be set up from 1 August, allowing this to rise to 14 flights per day.

If your flight is departing from Catania as planned, you are requested to arrive no more than three hours before your flight to avoid overcrowding.

The airport has set up air-conditioned tents outside the terminal to process passengers.

As confirmed in a Notice to Airmen, no non-Schengen flights will land at or depart from Catania airport until 26 July. Non-Schengen countries include UK, USA, Ireland, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria. Here is a full list of non-Schengen countries.

Some airlines are proactively cancelling all flights, such as the UK's Jet2 which has cancelled all flights in and out of Catania until 3 August.

While other airlines are diverting