Air Canada just named Anko van der Werff as its next chief executive officer. If you follow global aviation, his name is familiar. He is currently running Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) and has navigated it through intense restructuring. But he isn't moving to Montreal because of his spreadsheet skills alone. He's taking the job because he can speak French.
Let that sink in. Canada’s largest airline, a multi-billion-dollar global carrier headquartered in Quebec, had to launch an exhaustive global search to find a Dutch executive because its previous leadership simply couldn't, or wouldn't, speak the language of its home province.
Outgoing CEO Michael Rousseau is stepping down by the end of September 2026. His early departure follows an intense wave of public outrage and political condemnation. The catalyst was a tragic runway accident, but the underlying issue was a long-simmering corporate tone-deafness that finally boiled over.
The Tragedy and the Tone Deaf Message
To understand why a major airline replaced its homegrown executive with a European leader, you have to look back at the events of March 2026.
On March 22, an Air Canada Jazz flight landed at New York's LaGuardia Airport and collided with a fire-and-rescue vehicle right on the runway. The collision killed both pilots, Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther. It was a horrific event that demanded a swift, compassionate corporate response.
Rousseau released a four-minute video message to express his condolences. He spoke entirely in English. He offered French subtitles, but his spoken words in French were limited to "bonjour" at the beginning and "merci" at the end.
The backlash was instant.
Antoine Forest was a French-speaking Quebecer. To his family, and to millions of francophones across Canada, the English-only video felt like a slap in the face. It looked cold. It looked lazy. Most importantly, it showed a profound lack of judgment during a national tragedy.
Public anger escalated rapidly. Lawmakers in Quebec’s legislature didn't just complain; they overwhelmingly passed a motion calling for Rousseau’s resignation. The vote was 92 to zero. Politicians from every single party united to declare that the airline chief had shown a complete lack of respect for the French language and for grieving families. Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly rebuked the airline, noting that Air Canada has a clear responsibility to always communicate in both official languages. Within a week of the crash, Rousseau announced his retirement.
A History of Ignored Warnings
This wasn't Rousseau's first linguistic misstep. He had been warned years earlier, but he didn't listen.
Go back to November 2021. Rousseau had just taken over as CEO after serving as the company's chief financial officer. He delivered a major speech to business leaders in Montreal. The speech was almost entirely in English. When reporters later asked him how he had managed to live in Montreal for decades without learning French, his response was dismissive. He claimed he didn't need it to survive in the city, suggesting his busy schedule left no time for language classes.
The comment sparked a massive row. Chrystia Freeland, who was deputy prime minister at the time, wrote a formal letter to Air Canada’s board of directors, explicitly demanding that Rousseau improve his French. Rousseau apologized and promised to take lessons.
He didn't make enough progress. Five years later, when forced to address the death of a francophone pilot under his watch, his inability to speak French became an unsustainable liability. In his final apology, Rousseau admitted that despite years of lessons, he still couldn't adequately express himself in Canada's other official language.
Why Language Is an Operational Reality in Canada
Outside of Canada, some business analysts might look at this situation and wonder why an executive was ousted over language skills. They might view it as political correctness run amok. That view is completely wrong.
Air Canada isn't just another private company. It was founded as a crown corporation before being privatized. Because of that history, it's legally bound by the Official Languages Act. The law requires the airline to provide services and public communications in both English and French. It's not a marketing choice. It's a strict legal framework.
Quebec’s identity has been a core piece of the Canadian political fabric for centuries. Around 80% of Quebec's population speaks French. For an airline based in Montreal to treat French as an afterthought isn't just bad PR; it's an operational failure. It alienates a massive portion of the domestic customer base and violates the spirit of the laws governing the company.
When a company's leadership team ignores these cultural realities, it creates a massive governance risk. Air Canada's board realized too late that a corporate leader who cannot speak to the public during a crisis is fundamentally unequipped to run the national carrier.
The Global Search for a Multilingual Solution
When Air Canada launched its search for a new leader, the board made one criteria absolute: the next boss had to speak French.
They found their answer in Anko van der Werff.
Van der Werff is a seasoned aviation executive. His resume is impressive. He has held senior roles at Qatar Airways, Air France-KLM, and Aeromexico. He took the reins at Avianca in Colombia, leading the airline through a complex chapter before moving to SAS in 2021.
A native of the Netherlands, Van der Werff speaks Dutch. He also speaks fluent English. Throughout his international career, he picked up Spanish, Italian, and Swedish. Most importantly for his new employers, he is able to communicate effectively in French.
The contrast between the incoming and outgoing executives is stark. Rousseau lived in Quebec for decades and couldn't string a coherent French sentence together when it mattered most. Van der Werff, a European national who has never lived in Canada, already possesses the language skills required to respect the country’s legal and cultural identity.
Air Canada immediately showcased this capability. When the airline announced his appointment, their website featured a dual-language greeting from the new chief. In the text, Van der Werff explicitly stated that he is mindful of the importance of serving Canadians in both official languages. He called it a fundamental responsibility of the airline.
The Lesson for International Business Leaders
The Air Canada executive crisis offers a blunt lesson for boards and C-suite executives everywhere. Cultural competence is not a soft skill. It is a core business requirement.
Many North American corporations treat language and cultural training as a superficial corporate social responsibility exercise. They check a box, post a bilingual tweet, and move on. They assume that because English is the global language of business, it's the only language that matters.
This crisis proves how dangerous that assumption is. When things go wrong, people don't want to hear from a unilingual executive hiding behind translated subtitles. They want to hear from a leader who respects their community enough to speak to them directly.
Van der Werff won't have an easy start when he takes over by January 2027. Air Canada is dealing with high fuel costs, route delays to major US destinations, and lingering investor anxiety. He will have to fix these operational headaches while rebuilding trust with a skeptical Canadian public.
But by speaking the language, he has already eliminated the biggest distraction that crippled his predecessor. He can focus on running the airline instead of defending his right to ignore the culture of his own headquarters.
What Corporate Boards Must Do Next
If you sit on a corporate board or manage operations in culturally distinct markets, you need to learn from Air Canada’s multi-year headache. Do not wait for a crisis to evaluate your leadership team's cultural fit.
Audit your executive communication strategy immediately. If your company operates in a bilingual jurisdiction, ensure your top executives can actually speak both languages fluently. Relying on scripts or PR handlers leaves you exposed when a sudden crisis hits.
Review your succession planning criteria today. Incorporate language proficiency and regional cultural understanding directly into your executive recruitment metrics, making them mandatory requirements rather than optional bonuses.
Stop viewing local language laws as annoying regulatory hurdles. Treat them as core operational mandates. Respecting the local language is the simplest way to protect your brand's reputation and secure your social license to operate.
