Veren Airport

The primary reason for closure was economic. The airport was an agricultural airfield operated by the state-owned 'Agricultural Aviation' (Селскостопанска авиация). After the fall of the socialist regime in 1989, this state enterprise was dismantled, and the collectivized farming system it served was reformed. The transition to a market economy and private land ownership rendered the large-scale, state-sponsored aerial crop-dusting operations economically unviable, leading to the abandonment of this and many similar airfields across the country.

The site of the former Veren Airport has been completely repurposed and is unrecognizable as an airfield. It is now the location of the Veren Solar Park (Фотоволтаичен парк Верен), a large photovoltaic power plant. The runway and any associated airport infrastructure have been removed and replaced by rows of solar panels, which now cover the entire area.

Veren Airport was a key part of Bulgaria's extensive agricultural aviation network during the socialist era (1944-1989). Its main purpose was to serve the large, collectivized farms in the fertile Upper Thracian Plain, one of Bulgaria's most important agricultural regions. Operations included crop dusting, pest control, and fertilization. The airfield typically handled rugged and specialized aircraft designed for such tasks, most notably the Antonov An-2 and the Zlín Z-37 Čmelák. It represented the industrial scale of agriculture practiced in the People's Republic of Bulgaria.

There are zero prospects for reopening the airport. The construction of a major, modern solar power plant directly on the site is a permanent change of use. Reverting the land to an airfield would require the complete demolition of this significant energy infrastructure, making it physically and financially infeasible.