Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau will go away the corporate later this yr, after coming below hearth final week for his lack of ability to ship a video condolence message in French following a plane crash that killed two Air Canada Express pilots.
The airline mentioned Monday that Rousseau has instructed the board he’ll retire by the tip of third quarter of this yr. He is anticipated to proceed to steer the corporate and serve on its board of administrators till he steps down.
Rousseau was broadly criticized for the shortage of French within the four-minute condolence video posted on-line that included solely two French phrases — “bonjour” and “merci.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the choice to launch the video message solely in English confirmed a “lack of judgment and lack of compassion.”
Quebec Premier François Legault additionally referred to as the video disrespectful to the airline’s staff and its francophone prospects, including that if Rousseau would not communicate French, he ought to resign.
Air Canada board chair Vagn Sorensen thanked Rousseau for his many contributions on the airline.
Rousseau was appointed CEO of Air Canada in February 2021 after serving as deputy chief govt and chief monetary officer.
He took on the CFO job in 2007 on the cusp of the monetary disaster that kicked off that yr, overseeing the corporate’s books as journey demand plummeted amid the Nice Recession.
Rousseau is broadly seen as enjoying an instrumental function in altering Air Canada’s monetary trajectory by boosting its revenue margin, share value and pension plan, which moved from a $3.7-billion deficit in 2013 to a $2.6-billion surplus in 2019.
“We’re grateful for the decided management he has offered not solely in steering our firm by means of the 2007-2008 monetary disaster, COVID and different challenges, but in addition in capturing alternatives such because the acquisition of Aeroplan, in restoring the solvency of our pension plans and in advancing buyer centricity and worker well-being priorities,” Sorensen mentioned in an announcement.
As each CFO and CEO, his achievements lay in a single space above all.
“One phrase: finance,” mentioned John Gradek, who teaches aviation administration at McGill College.
“He turned Air Canada from a multibillion-dollar loss throughout the pandemic to a $3.5-billion (adjusted) revenue now.”
However relations not simply with Quebec’s francophone group — the Workplace of the Commissioner of Official Languages had obtained 1,808 complaints about Rousseau’s video as of final Thursday — however with labour unions proved uneven for the CEO.
The corporate cancelled 1000’s of flights in August 2025 throughout a three-day strike by flight attendants who disobeyed a federal directive to return on the job, catching Rousseau off-guard.
He acknowledged in a BNN Bloomberg interview that the corporate hadn’t made preparations for passengers whose journeys have been referred to as off as a result of he thought the order from Ottawa could be “enforced.”
The controversy over the video message wasn’t the primary time Rousseau’s lack of French landed him in hassle, both.
Following a speech in 2021 given nearly completely in English to the Montreal chamber of commerce, he instructed reporters he didn’t have to study French to get by in Montreal — feedback that sparked backlash and for which he apologized the following day.
Rousseau pledged at the moment to enhance his French.
Nonetheless, he apologized final week that regardless of many classes over a number of years, he was nonetheless unable to specific himself adequately in French.
As a former federal Crown company, Air Canada is topic to the Official Languages Act, which requires that it supply providers in French for routes that embody airports in Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick.
Air Canada mentioned its board will think about various standards in assessing candidates to be its subsequent chief govt, together with the power to speak in French.
The Air Canada Express flight that crashed was flying from Montreal to New York’s LaGuardia Airport, and most of the travellers and crew — together with Antoine Forest, one of many two pilots killed — have been French-speaking Canadians.
Forest and fellow pilot Mackenzie Gunther died when the aircraft collided with a fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed March 30, 2026.