Ash from La Palma volcano halts flights again

MADRID — All flights to and from the Spanish island of La Palma have been cancelled due to ash from the Cumbre Vieja volcano, which has been erupting for the past two months, the airport operator announced. Twenty national flights were cancelled on Saturday, said a spokesman for the Spanish airport authority. Air travel to the island in the Spanish-owned Canaries archipelago, off the Atlantic coast of North Africa, has been regularly affected since the volcano erupted on September 19 for the first time in 50 years. READ: No end in sight to volcanic eruption on Spain’s La Palma – Canaries president

No one has died in the eruption on the island of 85,000 people, but it caused serious damage and led to the evacuation of more than 7,000 people, with some buildings swallowed by lava flows. More than 1,000 hectares of land and more than 2,600 buildings were destroyed, according to the European geospatial measurement system, Copernicus. Provisional damage was estimated on Friday at nearly 900 million euros ($1 billion), according to the region. During a visit on Friday and Saturday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced new aid for the economy and infrastructure of the island, which depends in particular on tourism and banana cultivation. The island of La Palma is experiencing its third eruption in a century, after those of the San Juan volcano in 1949 and the Teneguia in 1971.