Staro Zhelezare Airstrip

Economic reasons. The airstrip was part of a large network of agricultural airfields operated during the socialist era in Bulgaria. Following the political and economic changes after 1989, the system of large, state-subsidized collective farms was dismantled. This led to the collapse of the supporting agricultural aviation infrastructure, rendering small, specialized airstrips like Staro Zhelezare economically unviable and obsolete.

The airstrip is permanently closed and abandoned. Satellite imagery shows the former runway is completely overgrown and no longer visible or usable. The site has been repurposed; a large portion of the former airfield and adjacent land is now occupied by a photovoltaic (solar) power plant, a common use for such flat, disused plots of land in Bulgaria.

Staro Zhelezare Airstrip was a utilitarian agricultural airfield (in Bulgarian: Селскостопанско летище, Selskostopansko letishte). Its sole purpose was to serve the needs of the large-scale, collectivized agriculture in the region during the People's Republic of Bulgaria. It primarily handled operations for crop-dusting and aerial application aircraft, most notably the Antonov An-2. These airstrips were a critical component of the centralized agricultural model of the time, enabling efficient treatment of vast tracts of land. It had no scheduled passenger or significant military role.

There are no known plans or credible prospects for reopening the airstrip. The original infrastructure is derelict, and the land has been repurposed for renewable energy production. The economic and logistical case for reactivating a small agricultural airstrip at this location is non-existent in the current economic climate.