Balıkesir Manyas Airfield

The primary reason for closure was a change in military strategic needs. As a dispersal airfield for the main Balıkesir Air Base, its strategic importance diminished significantly after the Cold War, making its maintenance economically unviable. The land was subsequently repurposed for more productive agricultural use.

The site has been completely converted to agricultural land. High-resolution satellite imagery shows that the former runway area is now divided into numerous farm plots. While the faint, straight-line outline of the runway is still visible from the air, it is overgrown, bisected by farm tracks and roads, and entirely unusable for any aviation purposes. There is no remaining airport infrastructure, such as hangars, control towers, or terminal buildings.

Balıkesir Manyas Airfield was a military airfield used by the Turkish Air Force (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri). Its primary function was to serve as an auxiliary or dispersal field, likely supporting the 9th Main Jet Base Command located at the nearby Balıkesir Air Base (LTBG). Its purpose was to provide an emergency landing and dispersal option for military aircraft, a common strategy during the Cold War to enhance the survivability of air assets in case of an attack on a main base. It never handled any civilian or commercial air traffic.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the Balıkesir Manyas Airfield. The land has been fully reclaimed for agriculture, and the region is well-served by the active Balıkesir Air Base (LTBG) for military purposes and the Balıkesir Koca Seyit Airport (LTFD) for civilian traffic. Re-establishing an airfield at this location would require significant investment to reacquire the land and rebuild all infrastructure from scratch, making it economically and logistically unfeasible.