The CEO of SAS Airlines, Anko van der Werff, will become CEO of Air Canada. Van der Werff is a former CEO of Avianca Group and Chief Commercial Officer of Aeromexico.
Here is van der Werff:
And here’s Air Canada’s former President and current Air France KLM CEO Ben Smith, which controls SAS:
Air Canada’s current CEO, Michael Rousseau, is stepping down after recording a condolence video in English (with French subtitles) about the tragedy of their Jazz flight to New York LaGuardia which was struck by an emergency vehicle. He had been put on blast in the past for not speaking French.
Canadian politics have focused on Rousseau speaking two words in French and offering French subtitles, but not speaking in French. There was massive political pressure for him to leave. There is, of course, a more Straussian reading.
The whole ridiculous situation had very little to do with Rousseau, except that under his leadership Air Canada has underperformed which:
- made him vulnerable to getting swept up in broader Canadian politics, and
- there’s still significant political influence over the national airline.
Air Canada was a state corporation, fully privatized in the late 1980s. It’s still governed by the Air Canada Public Participation Act which requires its head office must be in the Montreal Urban Community, and states that the Official Languages Act applies to it. English and French are official languages of Canada, with equal status in Parliament, the federal government, the courts – and at Air Canada.
- Air Canada received a pandemic bailout and the government became one of its largest shareholders with a 6% stake. In the role as shareholder, Deputy Prime Minister told the board to make the CEO’s French speaking ability part of his performance review.
- Parliament’s official languages committee summoned Rousseau and the Commissioner of Official Languages received hundreds of complaints even though no law was plausibly broken.
- Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal Party has held onto a bare majority, they have a strong base on Quebec, and cannot give ground to French separatists there. (Quebec is about 80% French-speaking.)
From the outside, this all made Canadian politics look uniquely stupid. But it was a very Canadian power struggle, and U.S. politics is stupid too! This wasn’t about Rousseau’s video, it was about Quebec’s relative status going into an election to fill vacancies in Parliament. Politics is not, first and foremost, about policy.
Against this backdrop it seemed odd to be reading that Anko Van der Werff here he is doing an interview in French.
Montreal’s La Presse, a major French-language Quebec news outlet, highlighted the news precisely as “Air Canada chooses a European who is fluent in French”
La Presse was able to view a short internal video in which Mr. van der Werff, 51, answers a few questions in French, something his predecessor was unable to do. Despite an accent, he speaks fluently and clearly. “Like many Dutch people of my generation, I was fortunate enough to learn French at school,” he says, “in the language of Molière. As a European, I understand the importance of language in identity. It’s a priority that I take very seriously.”
He’s already getting signoff on the French issue from the Quebec French establishment. They’ve gotten their scalp, and we’re past the April 2026 by-elections.
Rousseau’s mistake was to be a mix of arrogant and indifferent. Montreal has a couple of vestigial English speaking neighborhoods, but I truly do not get how Rousseau could have lived there for 20 years without developing some facility with French – I can only infer that he rather much avoided learning it.
I minored in French and when I have been in Quebec I have initiated every conversation in French. The effort seems to induce francophones to speak English with far greater cheer than otherwise. Van der Werff is European – I anticipate that, with respect to the French issue, he will enjoy more grace than an anglophone Canadian. And I equally anticipate he will make a real effort to speak French.
I hear he’s… SASsy…
He would be wise to keep Mark Nasr close to the vest as a successor.
One Mile at a Time previously reported that he is a non-French speaker.
Who cares.
Its a dreadful airline, terrible operationally, bad J product, even worse Y. Sour employees.
Yes. They speak French in Quebec much like they speak Spanish in Puerto Rican. In other words, it’s the same language but quite unintelligible in the European home countries.
Rousseau cannot speak French but Van der Werff does?
@Adam Smith — You’re right that most, outside of av-insiders or literal AC employees, probably do not actually care, nor will they notice much difference in the change of CEO; however, AC’s J on widebodies is pretty good (hard-product) and the food is decent, too, so, umm, please point on the doll where AC hurt you?
Well, AC774 just went off the runway at YUL, so, great start… (737, LAX-YUL, wet runway; everyone’s ok.)