Shijak Airfield

The airfield's closure was a direct result of the collapse of communism in Albania in 1991. This led to a severe economic crisis and the disintegration of the country's military capabilities. The Albanian Air Force's fleet of Soviet and Chinese-made aircraft was grounded due to a lack of spare parts, fuel, and funding. Shijak, being a secondary or dispersal airfield, was among the first to be abandoned. The final closure coincided with the official retirement of Albania's entire fleet of fixed-wing combat jets in 2005, rendering such reserve airbases obsolete.

The site is completely abandoned and in a state of decay. The single runway is still clearly visible from satellite imagery but is cracked, overgrown with vegetation, and unusable for any aviation purposes. The surrounding land is partially used for agriculture and grazing. Some of the former military structures are derelict or have been repurposed for local storage. The abandoned runway is also reportedly used for informal activities such as illegal drag racing and driver training.

Shijak Airfield was a military airbase constructed during the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha. It was part of a vast and expensive network of airfields and bunkers built out of Hoxha's paranoia and isolationist foreign policy. Its primary role was to serve as a dispersal field, designed to hide and operate fighter aircraft in the event of an invasion. It would have supported operations for aircraft from the main Albanian Air Force bases like Kuçovë and Rinas. The airfield was likely intended to house aircraft such as the MiG-15, MiG-17, and Shenyang J-6 (the Chinese version of the MiG-19). It represents a physical relic of Cold War-era military doctrine in one of Europe's most isolated states.

There are no known or credible plans to reopen Shijak Airfield. The Albanian government's aviation strategy is focused on developing international airports for tourism and commercial traffic, such as the expansion of Tirana International Airport and the construction of new airports in Vlorë and Sarandë. The significant cost to remediate and modernize the derelict infrastructure of Shijak for any practical use, combined with its proximity to the main Tirana airport, makes its reopening economically and strategically unviable. It is considered permanently closed.