FLIGHTS: Budget airline flyglobespan has beaten out Czech Airlines (ČSA) to become the dominant provider of flights between Prague and Glasgow, Scotland. The two companies have been competing for the approximately 100,000 Scots who make the trip every year, but ČSA plans to stop offering flights from Glasgow next month.

PLANT: German company Sandprofil plans to build a plant in Nový Bor, north Bohemia, that will produce plastic automotive parts, according to media reports. The company intends to launch construction at the end of August and to begin producing window and door profiles by the end of the year. The plant could employ as many as 100 workers.

ADVISER: CzechInvest, the state inbound investment agency, has selected a group led by GFA Consulting as its adviser in a program to make Czech companies more competitive. The European Union is financing the program, which, among other objectives, will allocate subsidies to develop Czech firms.

DEFICIT Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has included a 76.4 billion Kč deficit in his draft of the 2006 state budget, according to media reports. The government might spend as much as 923 billion Kč in 2006 despite a commitment to Brussels to spend no more than 915 billion Kč.

UNEMPLOYMENT: The jobless rate in Most, north Bohemia, reached 21.95 percent at the end of June, a 0.14 percent increase from May. The city of Most has the country's highest unemployment rate, and it could increase this month after the local branch of china maker Karlovarský porcelán closes shop. In May the national unemployment average was 8.6 percent.

CUTS The Finance Ministry will lay off 252 workers from its staff of more than 1,400 by the end of this year and eliminate nine ministry departments. The decision follows an audit by Deloitte, ordered by Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka. Sobotka recently urged all ministries to streamline their staffs and budgets.