Shareholders in the state-owned company operating Milan R. Štefánik Airport (BTS) in Bratislava voted at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday, September 9, to approve the replacement of BTS management, it was reported to the TASR newswire, without further elaboration.
Maroš Jančula was selected to replace Zdenek Schraml as board chairman, while Jaroslav Macho and Juraj Mitka will take over from Radko Zábranský and Jozef Pojedinec as members of the board of directors. Only two shareholders representing the ministry of Transportation, Posts and Telecommunications and the National Property Fund (FNM) attended the shareholder's meeting.
Officials at the Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications had initiated the replacement of management at the BTS-operating company over dissatisfaction with the airport's financial condition, the ministry spokesman’s Martin Krajčovič informed TASR.
He pointed out that under the previous government the airport had come under the influence of Vladimír Poor, famous for his rags-to-riches ascent from a waiter in Trnava to a multi-millionaire while serving as a political operative for HZDS in the 1990s.
“The state and society as a whole must bear the consequences (of the mismanagement) in terms of higher costs. The new management will have its work cut out to consolidate the airport's financial status,” said Krajčovič.
The ministry spokesman was responding to statements made by the outgoing head of BTS since 2008, Zdenek Schraml, that the replacement of the directors could be a politically motivated move after the change of government.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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