Plovdiv International Airport (LBPD / PDV)

Bulgaria · elevation 597 ft AMSL · 42.0678, 24.8508 · Local time: --:--:-- · UTC time: --:--:--

About Plovdiv International Airport

Plovdiv International Airport is an airport with the ICAO code LBPD and the IATA code PDV. Country: Bulgaria. Nearest settlement listed in the database: Plovdiv. OurAirports classifies it as a large airport. Its ICAO code starts with the LB prefix, which marks airports in Bulgaria. The four-letter code LBPD is used in flight operations and weather reports, while the three-letter IATA code PDV is used for ticketing and baggage handling. The airport reference point sits at 42°04'04"N, 24°51'03"E, at an elevation of 597 ft (182 m) above sea level. The applicable time zone is Europe/Sofia.

Satellite view of LBPD

Aerial imagery showing the runway and apron layout - the zoom is matched to the longest runway.

Open the satellite view in Google Maps

Runways of LBPD

ThresholdCourseLengthWidthSurface
12120°2,500 m (8,202 ft)45 m (148 ft)asphalt
30300°

The course is derived from the runway designator (number × 10), not from a survey - the actual magnetic bearing can differ by a few degrees.

Declared distances (TORA, TODA, ASDA, LDA) are published in the national AIP - they are not part of this table.

Climate at Plovdiv International Airport - statistics from METAR reports

What the METAR reports from LBPD for 2023-2025 show - counted hour by hour.

We computed these statistics from 26,292 METAR reports issued by LBPD in 2023-2025. VFR conditions prevailed 87% of the time, MVFR 8% and IFR or LIFR 5%. Best month for VFR flying: July (100% of hours VFR). Most IFR and LIFR hours: January (13%).

Through the day, IFR or LIFR conditions are most frequent around 06:00 UTC (10% of reports at that hour) and least frequent around 13:00 UTC (2%).

Fog (FG) was reported on 19 days a year on average, most often in January. Thunderstorms (TS) occurred on 6.7 days a year on average, and snowfall on 9.

The wind most often blows from W (270°) - 14% of reports. Calm (0 kt) made up 8% of reports, and gusts of 25 kt or more appeared in <1%. Warmest month: July (average high 34.4 °C); coldest: January (average low -0.1 °C).

Year

Selected period in numbers: 2023-2025

VFR hours
87%
IFR/LIFR hours
5%
Avg high
20.7 °C
Avg low
9.0 °C
Fog days
19
Thunderstorm days
6.7
Snow days
9
Prevailing wind
W · 14%
Gusts ≥ 25 kt
<1%

Day counts are for the selected period (for all years - the yearly average).

Flight categories month by month
Bar chart: share of VFR, MVFR, IFR and LIFR hours in each month0%25%50%75%100%January: VFR 72%, MVFR 15%, IFR 8%, LIFR 5%JanFebruary: VFR 85%, MVFR 9%, IFR 4%, LIFR 2%FebMarch: VFR 81%, MVFR 11%, IFR 5%, LIFR 3%MarApril: VFR 91%, MVFR 5%, IFR 3%, LIFR 1%AprMay: VFR 87%, MVFR 9%, IFR 3%, LIFR 1%MayJune: VFR 99%, MVFR 1%, IFR 1%, LIFR <1%JunJuly: VFR 100%, MVFR <1%, IFR <1%, LIFR <1%JulAugust: VFR 99%, MVFR 1%, IFR <1%, LIFR <1%AugSeptember: VFR 98%, MVFR 2%, IFR <1%, LIFR 0%SeptOctober: VFR 96%, MVFR 3%, IFR 1%, LIFR <1%OctNovember: VFR 78%, MVFR 12%, IFR 5%, LIFR 4%NovDecember: VFR 64%, MVFR 24%, IFR 8%, LIFR 4%Dec
  • VFR 87%
  • MVFR 8%
  • IFR 3%
  • LIFR 2%
Temperature month by month
Chart: average daily high and low temperature in each month−5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°January: -0.1 … 9.2 °C90JanFebruary: 0.6 … 11.3 °C111FebMarch: 4.3 … 15.8 °C164MarApril: 7.4 … 19.1 °C197AprMay: 11.1 … 21.4 °C2111MayJune: 16.6 … 30.5 °C3117JunJuly: 19.7 … 34.4 °C3420JulAugust: 18.5 … 32.7 °C3319AugSeptember: 15.0 … 27.9 °C2815SeptOctober: 8.4 … 21.3 °C218OctNovember: 4.3 … 14.1 °C144NovDecember: 1.7 … 9.9 °C102Dec

The top of each bar is the average daily high, the bottom the average daily low (usually around dawn), in °C.

Wind rose: how often the wind blows from each of 16 directions5%10%15%N: 2%NNE: 1%NE: 2%ENE: 3%E: 10%ESE: 8%SE: 5%SSE: 4%S: 4%SSW: 2%SW: 2%WSW: 3%W: 14%WNW: 12%NW: 4%NNW: 2%NNNENEENEEESESESSESSSWSWWSWWWNWNWNNWW 14%

Wind rose

  • 1-10 kt
  • 11-20 kt
  • over 20 kt
  • calm: 8%

Most often: W - 14% of reports. Each petal shows the direction the wind blows from (as in METAR) - the longer it is, the more often. Colour shows wind speed.

Month by month

MonthAvg high °CAvg low °CVFRIFR/LIFRFog daysThunderstorm daysSnow days
January9.2-0.172%13%6.303
February11.30.685%5%1.702
March15.84.381%8%2.30.70.3
April19.17.491%4%0.30.70.7
May21.411.187%4%0.70.70
June30.516.699%1%01.70
July34.419.7100%<1%01.30
August32.718.599%<1%00.70
September27.915.098%<1%00.70
October21.38.496%1%000
November14.14.378%10%3.30.31
December9.91.764%12%402

Temperatures are averages of daily highs and lows. Day counts are the average per month over the period.

More in the METAR Academy: VFR, MVFR, IFR, LIFR flight categories, fog in METAR

Source: routine METAR reports from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet archive (Iowa State University), 2023-2025. Flight categories use the FAA thresholds, widely used as a convention. A day counts when it has at least 12 reports. These are statistics of past conditions - not a forecast or a substitute for a pre-flight briefing.

Runways at LBPD

According to OurAirports data (compiled from AIP and FAA sources), Plovdiv International Airport has one runway: 12/30 - 2,500 m long (8,202 ft), 45 m wide, asphalt surface.

Runway headings and wind

The thresholds are oriented as follows: 12/30 on 120° and 300° magnetic. A threshold designator is its magnetic heading divided by ten (ICAO Annex 14), so the runway axis can be read straight off the numbers.

For the 12/30 axis, wind from the south-west (around 210°) or from the north-east (around 30°) blows perpendicular to the runway and produces the largest crosswind component. Wind from around 120° or 300° acts along the runway, as a headwind or a tailwind. The decoder on this page computes those components automatically from the current METAR.

METAR and TAF for LBPD

Weather reports for Plovdiv International Airport are published under the ICAO code LBPD. A METAR is an observation of current conditions, usually issued every 30 or 60 minutes; a TAF is a forecast for the airport area, typically covering 9 to 30 hours.

The decoder breaks the LBPD report down into its parts: wind direction and speed including gusts and variability, visibility (including CAVOK and directional minimum visibility), weather phenomena by WMO code, cloud layers with their bases, temperature and dew point, QNH pressure, and the resulting flight category - VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR - using FAA thresholds.

Not every airport issues its own reports; many smaller airfields have no weather station. If no current data is available for LBPD, check the nearby airports listed below.

Reports always use UTC (the Z suffix). The Europe/Sofia zone is GMT+02:00 in winter and GMT+03:00 in summer - that is the shift to apply to the time in the report to get local time at the airport.

The closest airports in the database, measured in a straight line from the reference point, are Air Belozem Airstrip (LBZM, 24 km), Maritsa Airfield (LBMA, 24 km), Graf Ignatievo Air Base (LBPG, 27 km). When no report is available for LBPD, they usually give the best approximation of conditions in the area.

METAR Academy

Something unclear in the LBPD report?

Step-by-step guides - with examples, charts and calculators.

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Nearby airports

Looking for a report from a specific day?

The METAR archive for LBPD goes back to 02/01/1939. Pick a date and see every observation from that day.

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Live weather from LBPD on your website

Run a flying club, a training organisation or an airfield website? Embed a ready-made panel with the current LBPD METAR - flight category, wind, visibility, temperature and pressure, refreshed automatically. The configurator lets you pick language, theme and units; you paste the code once.

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