Modernisation of government fleet of aircraft to start next year

The Czech government hopes to speed up the modernisation of its fleet of transport aircraft and has earmarked 850 million crowns (a little over 34.5 million US dollars) to buy two new planes. One is expected to be delivered next year, the other in 2007. The fleet is highly outdated and the number of forced landings due to technical failures has been growing. A commission is to decide by the end of the month whether two of the Russian Tu-154s will be replaced by Boeing or Airbus planes. The entire modernisation of the fleet is expected to cost around four billion crowns (around 164 million US dollars).