To investigate the effects of shade cultivation on the degradation kinetics of plastid pigments during the air-curing of cigar wrapper leaves, the CX81 cultivar was subjected to two treatments—shade cultivation (T30) and non-shade cultivation (CK). Dynamic changes in chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, as well as their degradation kinetics, were compared among different leaf positions during air-curing. The results showed that shade cultivation significantly increased the initial contents of plastid pigments and reduced both the degradation rate and extent during air-curing. The first 18 days after curing initiation constituted the main degradation stage for plastid pigments, with the degradation extent of chlorophyll following the order upper > lower > middle leaves, and that of carotenoids following lower > middle > upper leaves. Changes in plastid pigment contents under all treatments conformed to a first-order reaction kinetic model (R2 ≥ 0.97), with the rate constant k? following the order upper > lower > middle leaves and being higher under CK than under T30. This indicates that shade cultivation slows the degradation of plastid pigments during air-curing. Both internal and external validation demonstrated that the model can accurately predict changes in plastid pigment contents of different-position cigar wrapper leaves under shade cultivation, providing a theoretical basis for optimizing the air-curing process of shade-cultivated cigar wrapper leaves.