El Carmen Airport

The closure was due to economic reasons. El Carmen was an agricultural airfield operated by the state-owned Empresa Nacional de Servicios Aéreos (ENSA). With the end of Soviet subsidies, Cuba lost its supply of cheap fuel, aircraft spare parts (primarily for its fleet of Soviet-made An-2 aircraft), and agricultural chemicals. This economic collapse made the extensive network of agricultural airfields financially unsustainable, leading to the abandonment of most of them, including El Carmen.

The airport is completely abandoned and in a state of decay. Satellite imagery confirms the presence of a single paved runway, which is now severely cracked, weathered, and overgrown with vegetation, making it unusable for any aircraft. The few support buildings on the site are derelict and in ruins. The area is not used for any formal purpose and is slowly being reclaimed by the surrounding natural and agricultural landscape.

El Carmen Airport's significance was purely functional and agricultural. It was not a passenger, commercial, or major military airport. Its sole purpose was to support the region's vital sugar industry. The airfield served as a base for crop-dusting aircraft, which were essential for fumigating and fertilizing the vast sugarcane plantations in the Esmeralda municipality and surrounding areas of Camagüey province. It played a crucial role in the logistics of Cuba's state-controlled agricultural system prior to the 1990s.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening El Carmen Airport. The large-scale, state-subsidized agricultural aviation model it was built to serve no longer exists in Cuba. The cost to repair the runway and rebuild facilities would be substantial, and there is no current economic or strategic need for a dedicated airfield at this location. Its reopening is considered extremely unlikely.