Air Canada Chooses Anko van der Werff, Who Speaks French, as CEO After Language Backlash

When Air Canada announced the hiring of its new chief executive on Wednesday, the company highlighted one of Anko van der Werff’s skills: He speaks six languages including, and above all, French.

Mr. van der Werff, who currently heads Scandinavian Airlines, will replace Michael Rousseau, who came under repeated criticism in the airline’s home province of Quebec for his failure to learn French, which has equal legal status with English in Canada, despite repeated promises to do so.

Mr. Rousseau was widely condemned in the largely French-speaking province in March after an Air Canada Express jet collided with a truck as it was landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York. While one of the two pilots killed was a French speaker, Mr. Rousseau said only two words in French, “bonjour” and “merci,” in a video posted by the airline to address the disaster and comfort victims and their families.

The critics included Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney.

“We proudly live in a bilingual country,” Mr. Carney told reporters at the time. “Companies like Air Canada, particularly, have a responsibility to always communicate in both official languages regardless of the situation. I’m very disappointed.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/world/canada/air-canada-ceo-french-backlash-crash.html