Spain: La Palma airport remains closed due to volcanic ash

Its closing Airport of the Spanish island of La Palma has been extended indefinitely due to an ash cloud caused by the eruption of the volcano Kubre Vieha, announced the company that manages the Spanish airports (Aena).

Her airport La Palma, in the Canary Archipelago, “is still out of order due to the accumulation of ash. “The cleaning work is continuing,” Aena said on Twitter.

Asked by AFP, a company spokesman clarified that the date of reopening of the airport has not been made known. “It will depend on the volcanic ash that is still falling at the moment,” he said.

The ash cloud also forced airlines to divert their flights from the airport in northern Tenerife, according to APE-MPE, another island in the archipelago, to that in southern Tenerife, according to Aena. The ash from Kubre Vieha forced the authorities to close the airport yesterday, Thursday morning, in order to proceed with the cleaning of the runways.

The airport of La Palma, an island of 85,000 inhabitants, was already closed on September 25 for the same reasons. Aena had reopened the runways the next day, but the companies did not resume their flights until four days later.

It is recalled that the eruption of Kubre Vieha, which began on September 19, has not caused any deaths or injuries so far, but it has made it necessary to evacuate at least 6,000 people from their homes, some of whom lost everything due to the lava.

According to local authorities, at least 1,000 buildings were destroyed by the lava, which now covers an area of ​​4,310 acres.

Two previous volcanic eruptions in La Palma occurred in 1949 and 1971. They had caused a total of three deaths, two due to the inhalation of toxic gases, but less damage as the island had a much smaller population in that area.