Government officials might use Szijjártó’s former secretary of state’s plane

The last Malév plane may be used for government purposes, Népszabadság was informed. The Bombardier CRJ–200, which hasn’t been used in the past ten years, was bought for 230 million HUF by a Hungarian enterprise, which would lease the plane for business purposes. The company’s manager is Péter Szijjártó’s former secretary of state, who is also a member of the bank’s supervisory board which might provide loans to the project.

The Bombar­dier CRJ–200 (the registration mark is HA-LNA) was sold for 230 million HUF, a little less than a million dollar, to Malév’s liquidator, Irén Jakab company representative, told Népszabadság. The Hungarian buyer, Sectum Air Services Ltd., has already paid for the plane, and the new owner has already received all the legal documents.

Although the company had high hopes for the plane, it was sold much cheaper than all the other planes on the market which still function perfectly; they usually cost about 2.5-3 billion HUF. However, this particular Bombar­dier CRJ–200 hasn’t been used in the past ten years. The plane was professionally taken care of for a while, but it was greatly neglected in the past couple of years and is currently stored in a hangar at Liszt Ferenc International Airport.

One possible way to make use of the plane is to lend it to the government officials. Mihály Boris, representative of Sectum Air Services Ltd., one of the financial investors, said, that they intend to use the plane for business purposes, because according to their market research currently there is no plane in Hungary which could be leased by anyone, and has a capacity of 48 people. The plane is currently undergoing several technical inspections, so there’s no exact answer for what the plane might be used for, or when it will fly again.

For the question, whether they are willing to lend the plane to government officials, the company said that they are open for every possibility, but it is yet to be seen.

The manager of the Győr based company is Balázs Kohut, former Minister of State for Public Administration, who resigned earlier this spring (the official stand was that he originally took the job for only six months, but many suspect that the Quaestor scandal had a big part in it). According to the company’s data, Sectum Air is part of Sectum Security, which is managed by Ágoston Gubicza, who earlier worked for the Irish company Cape Clear Aviation, but did not leave a good impression after he left.

The plane is currently being examined to determine if and when it can be used again; it was built in 2002, and, according to the files, has flown 15.000 hours so far. According to Boris, the company might need loans to fix the plane, and that could cost more than its purchase price, as the plane hasn’t been used in the past ten years.

based on an article of nol.hu
translated by Adrienn Sain

Copy editor: bm

Source: nol.hu