According to a report in yesterday’s edition of business daily Napi Gazdaság, Hungary’s state asset management company – MNV Zrt – is trying to figure out who might be interested in buying the former Taszár military airfield, near the southern capital of Pécs.
By all accounts, finding someone to take over Taszár for use as a civilian airport is not going to be easy. After a brief stint as the first U.S. air base in the former Soviet Bloc, the facility was officially “mothballed” back in 2001, and currently has neither the permits nor the legal background for use as a regular airport.
So the question is, who might be interested in acquiring a slightly rundown – but probably very cheap – airfield suitable for use by both business jets of the sort used by oil executives, and fighter/bombers capable of reaching deep into the EU? Of course, the buyer would have to be on good terms with the Hungarian government – being, for example, a close partner in a large and controversial regional energy project. It also might help if the new owner is already familiar with the facility, or even (in the best case) having once owned it.
Finally, who on earth would want to come to work every day and have to walk by a big vintage MiG-21 jauntily propped up on stilts, looking as if the Soviets actually won the Cold War? Honestly, we’re stumped.
Dear editor,
The “vintage MIG-21″ is a part of word- and Hungarian history just as well as being a part of Taszar’s history.Of course,it can be removed if needed so.
This is not important.What is important is the future of the village,the region and of course the future of the people who live there.
If selling the facility means more jobs,that is already something positive.