Government narrows competition for state airline ČSA down to two

The state-owned air-carrier ČSA will not be bought by Russian airline Aeroflot, the outgoing cabinet decided on Monday. Of four potential bidders, the government has narrowed the competition down to two. Speaking on Monday, Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek said that only Unimex Group and Travel Service, who are launching a joint-bid with KLM-Air France, would be put forward for consideration, while Aeroflot and Odien were no longer in contention. The Finance Ministry refused to comment further on the criteria used to select the bidders. ČSA is expected to be privatized by this October; it is predicted that it will fetch around 4.5 billion crowns (215 million USD).