Overwhelmed Albania Delays Auction of Old Jets

The Albanian Defence Ministry has postponed an auction of old Russian and Chinese-made military planes following an unexpectedly large number of requests to take part in the bidding.

Earlier this month, the ministry put out a routine announcement of an auction on February 22 to sell 36 planes and four helicopters parked in military aerodromes.

Up for auction are several types of combat plane; six Yak-18s, three Mig-15s, three Uti-Migs, four Mig-17s, four Uti-Mig 17s, ten Mig-19s, six Mig-21s and four helicopter Mil Mi-4s bought between 1950 to 1977 from Russia and China.

With modest prices, ranging from around 8,000 to 13,000 euros, the Ministry of Defence expected to raise around 435,000 euros in all.

Their sale is only for non-military purposes, to interested museums or to private collectors keen on Cold-War military mementos.

The low value put on the planes reflected the fact that from 2012 to 2013, the Defence Ministry failed six times in a row to sell obsolete aircraft in auctions.

This time, however, partly because of international media interest in the story, interest among buyers abroad to take part was far greater - and beyond the capacity of the ministry to handle all the documentation.

The ministry's media adviser, Edlira Prendi, told BIRN that the ministry will soon publish a new date for the auction.

"We postponed the February 22 auction as a result of the interest shown by potential buyers for the planes and helicopters. We had requests from the US, Russia, Italy and from places all over the world," Prendi said.

She explained that the ministry needed more time to proceed with the documentation of all the interested buyers.

On the other hand, Prendi said that she did not know if the ministry...