Ash From Ethiopia Volcano Reaches India, Triggers Flight Disruptions

After Ethiopia’s long-dormant Hayli Gubbi volcano erupted on November 23, its ash plume crossed the Red Sea and reached Delhi by late November 24. The volcano, quiet for nearly 12,000 years, erupted for hours and blanketed the nearby Afdera village in ash.

Experts called the event highly unusual due to the region’s understudied volcanic activity. Volcanologist Arianna Soldati noted that a volcano can erupt even after thousands of years if conditions for magma formation still exist.

The cloud then drifted over Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Punjab, and Haryana, and is now moving toward eastern India. The eruption — the first ever recorded for this volcano — sent ash up to 14 km into the atmosphere.

According to IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, the plume may temporarily affect satellites and flight operations but is unlikely to significantly impact weather or air quality.

India’s aviation regulator DGCA issued an advisory directing airlines to avoid volcanic-ash–affected areas, revise flight routes, and conduct safety inspections. The ash has already disrupted air travel, with Air India cancelling 11 flights and other carriers like IndiGo, Akasa Air, and KLM also impacted.

However, experts say the contamination level is still unclear because the eruption happened without prior warning. "Measuring contamination caused by volcanic eruptions take a lot of preparation. So the level of contamination is not known," GP Sharma, president (meteorology and climate change) at Skymet Weather said.