Air Canada will see a management change, and I don’t think many people will be sad to hear that.
In this post:
Michael Rousseau “retires” as CEO of Air Canada
Air Canada has announced that CEO Michael Rousseau has informed the Board of Directors that he will retire by the end of the third quarter of 2026, after nearly two decades at the airline. No immediate replacement has been named.
The announcement notes that “work has been underway for more than two years on a comprehensive internal development program for high potential executives.” An external global search was also commenced in January 2026, to identify potential additional candidates with skills and experience to lead the airline.
News of this “retirement” comes after the recent Air Canada Jazz accident at New York LaGuardia (LGA), where a big focus became the CEO’s lack of French. That might not seem like a big deal to some. However:
- It is a big deal to those in Quebec, given that the airline is headquartered there, and Rousseau has also lived there for a long time, without putting effort into properly learning the language; this became such a serious issue that even the country’s Prime Minister got involved
- The issue is that Rousseau had a similar controversy at the start of his tenure at the airline, also due to his lack of French, and he committed to improving his French, which clearly never happened
So it’s not surprising that the announcement notes how the airline is “proudly headquartered in Montreal,” and that the company will “consider a number of performance criteria in assessing candidates including the ability to communicate in French.”
Here’s what Rousseau had to say about his departure from the airline:
“It has been my great honour to work with the dedicated and talented people of Air Canada and to represent our outstanding organization, including as chair of the Star Alliance chief executive board and on the board of directors of the International Air Transport Association. I look forward to supporting our company during this important transition period.”
Meanwhile here’s what Vagn Sørensen, Chair of the Board of Directors, had to say about this news:
“On behalf of the entire Board, I want to thank Mike for his many contributions to Air Canada as he progressed from Chief Financial Officer to Deputy CEO and then to CEO and Board member. We are grateful for the determined leadership he has provided not only in steering our company through the 2007-2008 financial crisis, COVID and other challenges, but also in capturing opportunities such as the acquisition of Aeroplan, in restoring the solvency of our pension plans and in advancing customer centricity and employee well-being priorities. Our upcoming AGM will allow us to further recognize his achievements which include a legacy of financial strength.”
Who could become the next CEO of Air Canada?
No disrespect to Rousseau as a person, but I don’t think many people are sad to see him go as CEO. My issue with Rousseau wasn’t his lack of French, but instead, that he just seemed like a complete dud in the role (maybe there’s a nicer way to say that, but… sorry not sorry). As I said in my post last week, it was high time for him to leave.
So, who could be the next CEO of Air Canada? My impression is that for all practical purposes, Mark Galardo and Mark Nasr (I’m going alphabetically here!) have basically been running the show in recent years, and if anything, their good work maybe made Rousseau look good, just by association.
They’re both still fairly young, in their 40s. If you ask me (no one asked, I know), make one of them CEO and the other President, and that’s your best internal succession plan. They’re both very smart, passionate, knowledgable guys, who live and breathe the industry. I don’t like the whole culture of “pick a CEO in his 60s who has been around for 30+ years without rocking the boat,” just on principle.
If the airline looks externally, who might be considered? Two people come to mind:
- Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith would be an ideal candidate, since he was already President at Air Canada previously, he’s fluent in English and French, and he knows his stuff; however, arguably the job would be a bit of a downgrade, so unless he desperately wanted to move back to Canada or the airline made him an incredible offer, I can’t imagine he’d consider it
- WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech has done a good job during his tenure, and he’s also fluent in English and French; however, I fail to see what unique value he’d add beyond someone like Galardo or Nasr
Can we please do American Airlines next, now? 😉
Bottom line
Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau will be “retiring” from the airline, after yet another French language controversy. My issue with him isn’t his lack of French (though that’s an issue, when he promised years ago, he’d improve it, but didn’t), but rather his absent leadership style. Either way, in “retirement,” I hope Rousseau can find the time to take some French classes.
I’m very curious to see who gets the role next. The two most promising internal leaders are both still quite young, though I’d have way more confidence in either/both of them being in the top two spots compared to Rousseau, and I think they’re qualified.
Who do you think will become the next Air Canada CEO?
Maybe Air Canada should consider moving out of Quebec rather than dealing with the asinine non-productive, free-market capitalism inhibiting, bilingual issue saddling Air Canada with baggage. This clearly shows a drag upon Air Canada other companies are not necessarily facing in North America, thus limiting their overall competitiveness. Ouch and yes.
Quebecer here whose mother tongue is English but also speaks French on account of having grown up here. I would add one more thing to explain why last week's English condolences video caused an uproar. The captain was French and given how the plane originated in Montreal a good number of survivors would also be French. It is a basic act of respect to send a message to the captain's loved ones and the survivors...
Quebecer here whose mother tongue is English but also speaks French on account of having grown up here. I would add one more thing to explain why last week's English condolences video caused an uproar. The captain was French and given how the plane originated in Montreal a good number of survivors would also be French. It is a basic act of respect to send a message to the captain's loved ones and the survivors in their mother tongue.
The French media here in Quebec is reporting that Rousseau completed 500 hours of French training after the 2021 incident. I find it hard to believe that after that many hours of instruction he couldn't make a pre-recorded statement using a teleprompter that would have been written by someone in the PR department. Even if he really didn't feel comfortable doing a video in French he should have at least had the foresight to have someone who could speak the language record it.
Mark Galardo is from Montreal I believe so if his French is up to par I imagine that would give him an edge over Mark Nasr, unless he has been learning French with the hopes of getting the CEO job. Either way I hope one of them becomes CEO. I agree that Rousseau has been an absolute dud during his tenure. This latest incident was just one of many examples of his poor performance in the role.
Politics is reserved to air grievances and settle score. It is never for the common good of society. Pierre Trudeau got into tussles with Parti Quebecois often enough that he publicly called them "cochon"/ pigs. You can live in Montreal without knowing French. French language has been on decline for decades now because English is widely used in medicine, science and especially now high-tech. Decades ago, France lost many opportunities to host conferences when it...
Politics is reserved to air grievances and settle score. It is never for the common good of society. Pierre Trudeau got into tussles with Parti Quebecois often enough that he publicly called them "cochon"/ pigs. You can live in Montreal without knowing French. French language has been on decline for decades now because English is widely used in medicine, science and especially now high-tech. Decades ago, France lost many opportunities to host conferences when it required attendees know French. In SE Asian countries that were French colonies, students are no longer interested in French scholarships. They rather learn English when employment opportunities are much more available with higher salaries. World economies are much more integrated and inter-dependent now that we can get away knowing English only when traveling and engaging in businesses abroad, set aside google translation app. It gives English native speakers the comfort and arrogance not to be proficient in another language both in speaking and writing, unless they learn at home or it is an employment requirement. To say nobody cares if Air Canada CEO is unilingual displays an utter absence of knowledge in Canadian history. No other foreign language is relevant in Canada if you want to climb the political and perhaps business ladder. Any immersion language program always fails to train people to become proficient because the only way to become fluent in a language, you must use it daily with native speakers. As they say, when learning a language you will " use it or lose it".
Air Canada: where you don't have to be qualified if you can speak French. Whats next, pilots without any certification besides their French diploma?
Hire some high school French teacher for the role.
Canadian here. The role of bilingualism in the Canadian social/political space is often confounding to non-Canadians (and particularly to Americans tbh). Ben has already hit on several elements of it: the airline is headquartered in Québec, and employs a ton of francophones, and it's likely that most of the passengers on the YUL-LGA flight in question were Francophone. The bigger issue is that bilingualism runs through every other aspect of the airline. If you want...
Canadian here. The role of bilingualism in the Canadian social/political space is often confounding to non-Canadians (and particularly to Americans tbh). Ben has already hit on several elements of it: the airline is headquartered in Québec, and employs a ton of francophones, and it's likely that most of the passengers on the YUL-LGA flight in question were Francophone. The bigger issue is that bilingualism runs through every other aspect of the airline. If you want nearly any client-facing role at Air Canada - gate agents, customer service reps, flight attendants, etc - you must speak both. The airline is mandated, by law, to serve its customers in both official languages. That its CEO could not do so, and appeared either unwilling or unable to devote the time and effort necessary to learn how, had become a massive liability.
As an anglophone raised in an anglophone province (and who has laboured mightily for the last 7-8 years to learn French to a level where I can comfortably use it in professional settings), many of my views on the extent of bilingualism requirements are quite complicated. But one element that is not is my belief that if your entry-level workers have to speak both, then your CEO has to speak both as well. And if you don't, can't, or won't, there are many fine big companies in this country where that is not a requirement of the CEO job. However, Canada's Montreal-headquartered flag carrier is not among them.
I agree with all the above. I'd like to add that, in the case of an aircraft incident, it's the bare minimum respect to address sympathy in the victims' language, where you come from a country which speaks such language.
It can only remind me of MH370 where, with an overwhelming majority of Chinese passengers, Malaysia made a point to do English-only press conferences, while it isn't exactly hard, in Kuala Lumpur to find someone capable of translating to Mandarine.
So now we all know why Tim Dunn, has been absent from this website just recently …. he must have been bulling up on his French sprecken. Good luck with your interview and subsequent appointment Tim, Delta will miss you.
Do people really not understand that complaining about him when he isn't here is just as annoying as his actual posts?
I did take French in high school but never lived in a French speaking country but do speak more than one language so I am not the "usual American"
Fired because he was unable to make an official statement in French, or hold a press conference in that language. AC is big enough to hire French speaking spokespeople and public relations. Have a francophone read translated statements in French or answer Quebecois press questions. No reason for the CEO to perform these public relations roles.
Was he really that bad? Air Canada generally has been doing fine, they've been expanding their international network well, they've recovered from pandemic losses to profitability.
A lot of macro level issues like US relations or the ongoing ME conflict that he isn't in control of. He just seems to be a generic CEO imo. He didn't sink anything, just maintained the status quo in the right direction.
So Rousseau was fired for not learning fake French?
When Lufthansa goes to Japan , the Lufthansa crew does not need to speak Japanese .
No one cares if the CEO of Air Canada speaks Frenchie ; no one in Texas speaks Frenchie .
Alert--English and French are both the official ;anhuages of Canada. Just loke English and Texan are the official languages of Texas.
Sorry Alert
The number of spelling mistakes in my last comment suggest that I should not be commentimng on language issues. Here is a corrected version:
English and French are the official languages of Canada. Just like English and Texan are the official languages of Texas.
Your two comparisons are not even remotely similar.
As for the statement “No one cares…”. Well, that is pretty objectively false, considering tje whole controversy is rooted in that, and Quebec’s legislature voted 92-0 calling for hos resignation.
Alexis Texas is joining the airline industry to replace him.
They are constrained to have an English speaker succeed a French speaker
This is crazy and embarrassing as a Canadian. Competency should not be replaced by linguistic abilities. No wonder no one likes Quebec
Oui Oui , monsieur . If one goes on vacation to Hawaii , one does not need to learn Hawaiian .
I find it odd that most English speaking Americans who live in places like southern Texas and Miami where English is not the main language do not make even a token effort to learn Spanish. “If I talk slow and loud every one understands English”
Would you be OK with a Mexican who only speaks Spanish running Delta or United? I bet you wouldn’t.
Maybe not but as a part of the legislation that made Air Canada transition from a Crown Corporation to a public company there are legislative reasons that need to be considered as well
Shareholders might like the WestJet CEO. Passengers do not
Yes.. please send Robert Isom over so space is made for a competent person to shape up AA.
Joke aside - what about Pieter Elbers? [I'm not sure how good his French is] since he was just released from IndiGo.
Cheers!
I assumed Mark became COO precisely to get him operational leadership experience to prepare him for the CEO role. He's only been in that role for 11 months. He does speak French... If the Board doesn't elevate him, he'll eventually be a CEO.
Quebec makes Canadian politics so weird.
Outside of some school districts in Ontario and New Brunswick, French language education in Canadian public schools is bad - really no different than second-language education in the United States.
On top of that, there's really little motive for someone in say Vancouver to learn French - learning Spanish or Chinese would be far more useful.
Given the increasing amount of jobs that require bilingualism in...
Quebec makes Canadian politics so weird.
Outside of some school districts in Ontario and New Brunswick, French language education in Canadian public schools is bad - really no different than second-language education in the United States.
On top of that, there's really little motive for someone in say Vancouver to learn French - learning Spanish or Chinese would be far more useful.
Given the increasing amount of jobs that require bilingualism in Canada (good luck getting into a high level management role at the Federal government without learning French), this basically gives Quebec an insane amount of control over Canadian politics by job placement.