CPK board fires CEO Filip Czernicki and deputy as Poland's flagship airport project enters construction phase

The dismissals

The supervisory board of Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK), the state-owned company behind the Port Polska infrastructure programme, voted on 30 July to remove president Filip Czernicki and board member Dariusz Kuś. The company confirmed the decision in a Friday statement, adding that board member Marcin Michalski will serve as acting president until a permanent successor is appointed. The supervisory board said it would launch a recruitment process in the coming days to fill the vacant seats.

Czernicki had led CPK since April 2024, having first joined the supervisory board in January 2023 and served as acting president after the dismissal of Mikołaj Wild. Kuś, a former long-time CEO of Wrocław airport, had sat on the board since February 2024 and was responsible for the aviation component of the project, also heading the subsidiary Port Polska.Lotnisko. The board now consists of three people: acting president Michalski and members Piotr Rachwalski and Adam Ferens.

Why now

The company's press office told Rzeczpospolita that the decision reflects the project's entry into a phase of intensified construction work on the Warsaw–Łódź–Wrocław/Poznań high-speed rail line and the new airport. Government plenipotentiary for CPK and deputy infrastructure minister Piotr Malepszak told PAP the same: "When we start construction work, the goal is to strengthen the board with people who have on-site experience." He noted that Adam Ferens, appointed to the board in June, will now oversee the construction area. Malepszak said a competition for the president's post will be announced within two weeks.

Unofficial accounts paint a more turbulent picture. Money.pl, which first reported the dismissals citing three sources at multiple levels, said reservations about how the investment was being managed were a factor. Industry sources also described rising tensions between CPK and the Ministry of Infrastructure. Maciej Wilk, president of the TAK dla CPK association and a former LOT operational board member, told Money.pl that the ousted executives had been brought in when the government narrative was that CPK would never be built, and that the conservative 2032 completion timeline already looks increasingly delayed. "Today, as this is slowly coming to light, scapegoats have been found," Wilk said.

These people took their posts at a time when the government narrative was that CPK would never be built. Then a very conservative investment timeline to 2032 was adopted, which already today looks increasingly delayed. Today, as this is slowly coming to light, scapegoats have been found.

Gazeta Prawna added that the CPK board had been unsuccessfully pressing the Ministry of Infrastructure for over a year to unlock EU funds from the FEnIKS programme for the high-speed rail component, warning that the lack of financing was directly holding up the project.

A second leadership shake-up in weeks

The boardroom dismissals follow a change at the political level. In mid-June, Prime Minister Donald Tusk removed Maciej Lasek from his role as government plenipotentiary for CPK, a post he had held since late 2023. Infrastructure minister Dariusz Klimczak said Lasek had requested the change himself, telling him that a key phase of the airport and high-speed rail planning had been closed. Lasek was replaced by Piotr Malepszak, who had previously overseen rail transport.

Janusz Janiszewski, former acting president of the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency (PAŻP), wrote on X that the dismissals were "not just a local earthquake in the company" but a signal to be read in the wider context of Polish aviation governance. He noted that PAŻP's current president, Magdalena Jaworska-Maćkowiak, has sat on the CPK supervisory board since January 2024, a presence meant to ensure the new hub meshed with the realities of Polish airspace management.

What is Port Polska

CPK is wholly owned by the State Treasury and is responsible for the Port Polska programme, which encompasses a new central airport between Warsaw and Łódź, a high-speed rail network, road infrastructure around the airport, a logistics centre, and an Airport City development. At the end of June, CPK signed a contract worth approximately 146 million złoty with Budimex to build the foundations for the passenger terminal. Earthworks are scheduled to begin in September, with the airport slated to open in 2032.