People watch ash billow from an eruption of the long-dormant Hayli Gubbi Volcano in Ethiopia's Afar region (AP)
An IndiGo Airlines flight from Kerala’s Kannur to the UAE, on Monday was diverted to Ahmedabad following the eruption of Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi volcano. In a statement, IndiGo said flight 6E 1433 from Kannur to Abu Dhabi was diverted due to volcanic activity.
“The flight has now landed in Ahmedabad and Indigo will provide return service to Kannur,” the airline said.
Other airlines including Akasa Air, IndiGo and KLM have also cancelled some flights due to the volcanic ash issue.
Hayli Gubbi volcano eruption
The Hayli Gubbi volcano in the Afar region of Ethiopia erupted on Sunday morning, leaving the neighboring village of Afdera covered in dust. Ash plumes from the volcanic eruption spread across the Red Sea toward Yemen and Oman up to 14 km in the sky, causing disruption of flights through the region.
Locals told The Associated Press, that the Hayli Gubbi volcano has been long-dormant, and there was no previous record of it erupting.
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The Smithsonian Institution’s Global Volcanism Program said Hayli Gubbi has had no known eruptions during the Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
🌋 #HayliGubbi — a once-dormant shield volcano in Ethiopia’s Afar Rift — has exploded to life. Its ash plume soared to 45,000 ft, signaling a rare, high-energy event in a volcano with no known eruptions for millennia.
The Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Center in France also reported the eruption, which it observed on satellite imagery.
The volcano, which rises about 500 metres in altitude, sits within the Rift Valley, a zone of intense geological activity where two tectonic plates meet.
Ash clouds from the volcano drifted over Yemen, Oman, India and northern Pakistan, the US Volcanic Ash Advisory Center said.
The local authorities shared photos and videos of a towering ash plume rising from the volcano.
🌋 ERUPTION ALERT — Erta Ale (Hayli Gubbi), Ethiopia The Biggest Lava Lake on Earth Just Roared Back to Life Images & Articles: https://t.co/00hpNCh9Zx SpaceTracker Journal — 23 November 2025
Last night in the Afar Depression, the Erta Ale shield volcano—known locally as Hayli… pic.twitter.com/Nb35ruTml4
A local administrator, Mohammed Seid, told The Associated Press that there were no casualties, but the eruption could have economic implications for the local community of livestock herders.
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“While no human lives and livestock have been lost so far, many villages have been covered in ash and as a result, their animals have little to eat,” he said.
The Afar region is prone to earthquakes and a resident, Ahmed Abdela, said he heard a loud sound and what he described as a shock wave.
“It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown with smoke and ash,” he said.
The village near the Danakil desert, which is a tourist attraction, was still covered in ash on Monday, and tourists and guides heading to the desert were stranded in the village, according to Abdela.
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People watch ash billow from an eruption of the long-dormant Hayli Gubbi Volcano in Ethiopia's Afar region (AP) 
