TIRANA, Feb. 17 – The Albanian government has unexpectedly cancelled a tender to sell its stock of Soviet-era MiG fighter aircraft inherited from the Cold War under communism citing public interest reasons.
In a statement published this week, the defense ministry shortly informed that the much-expected tender scheduled for Feb. 22, which also received wide coverage by international media, had been cancelled because of “public interest reasons.”
It is not known whether the public reasons include the cheap starting prices the Albanian government had set or whether the government intends to preserve them for display in public museums.
“They have their preservation and inventory costs. They are currently preserved in our military aerodromes. I believe they will also create some space because they normally hinder our activity, but also bring income which will only be used for the modernization, purchase of armament and ammunition and nothing else,” Defense Minister Mimi Kodheli has said.
The ministry says it will make a new announcement in the Public Procurement Agency in case it decides to re-offer the aircraft for sale.
Ministry officials earlier informed there had been considerable interest in the tender also from abroad not only because of the cheap aircraft price but also the legacy of these relics.
The defense ministry had earlier invited bids for 40 Soviet era planes and helicopters at a price tag of 1.1 million lek to 1.9 million lek (€7,840 to €13,542) each, specifying that the sale is made for non-military use. The decision came more than a decade after retiring them and seven years after the country’s NATO membership.
The list of aircraft includes MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19 and MiG 21 as well as Jak-18 planes and four Mi-4 helicopters.
The forty military aircraft currently preserved in the military bases of Kuà§ova, Rinas, Gjader and Farke were also offered altogether at a starting price of 61.4 million lek (€438,000) in the initially announced Feb. 22 tender.
The Soviet-era fighters which took the lives of 35 Albanian pilots but were not used in any attack against potential ‘revisionist’ invaders of isolated communist Albania were scheduled to be offered to museum collectors and for scrap.
The last MiG fighter took off from the Kuà§ova military air base in November 2004 just before Albania declared their retirement and its shift to pure helicopter force.
Under the 45-year communist regime, Albania had a considerable air fleet of Soviet Union and Chinese MiG 15, 17, 19 and 21. A number of them are displayed in the country’s state museums, including the new museum of armed forces in Tirana.
