The Finance Ministry dismissed five members of the supervisory board during an extraordinary general meeting Nov. 27. With the resignation of board member Jiří Jurán, that means that half of the 12-member group has been replaced.

Miroslav Ševčík — head of the economic think tank Liberal Institute and an instructor at the University of Economics in Prague — was named chairman of the board, becoming the company's third supervisory chairman this year.

When congratulated on his new appointment, Ševčík told The Prague Post, "You should rather express your condolences. There is nothing pleasant ahead of us. ČSA is not in a rosy situation, but quite in the red."

ČSA cut its 773 million Kč ($35.6 million) loss, recorded in the first half of this year, to 324 million Kč through September. The airline's cumulative loss still exceeds 1 billion Kč.

The board has the authority to recall members of the ČSA board of directors and is responsible for appointing the company president, which may be cause for concern for ČSA President Radomír Lašák. He is in the middle of a three-year restructuring plan that aims to return the company to profitability by 2008.

While Ševčík was quick to say that Lašák is not to blame for the airline's current woes, he did not rule out tinkering with Lašák's restructuring plan.

"It could be that when Mr. Lašák put together this plan, he may not have had enough information about the actual state of the company," Ševčík said.

The Finance Ministry replenished the board with its own representatives, as well as two representatives from the Transportation Ministry and one from the Industry and Trade Ministry.

The government axed supervisory board Chairman Ján Dzvoník after a little more than 10 months at the post. He replaced Eduard Janota Jan. 19.

Three ČSA employee representatives remain on the supervisory board, along with a member of the Czech Consolidation Agency and Prague Mayor Pavel Bém.

The Finance Ministry, along with the Transportation Ministry, will soon declare a public tender to find a consulting company that will propose further restructuring of the airline and determine whether or not current ČSA management is competent.

The supervisory board is scheduled to meet twice in December.