The airport in Catania, the Sicilian city at the foot of Mount Etna, temporarily suspended operations on Tuesday following a volcanic eruption.
The airport announced in the afternoon that take-offs and landings would be halted, after Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology registered volcanic activity at Etna's south-eastern crater since the late morning.
Photos taken by the institute showed a huge column of smoke rising from the mountain, which is more than 3,300 metres high.
During the night, Etna had begun spewing lava that snaked down the snow-covered slope to an altitude of about 1,700-1,800 metres.
There were initially no reports of injuries or major damage.
The airport in Catania, located south of the volcano, has repeatedly had to close its airspace in the past due to eruptions, especially when ash cloud moves southward, as it did on Tuesday.
