Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau’s retirement advanced by a year after English-only video controversy

Air Canada AC-T chief executive officer Michael Rousseau sped up his planned retirement by 12 months after his English-only video in response to the fatal crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport triggered a firestorm in Quebec, leaving the country’s largest airline scrambling to find a successor.

Montreal-based Air Canada is interviewing internal and external CEO candidates after announcing on Monday that Mr. Rousseau, aged 68, will retire at the end of September.

The announcement of his planned departure came after the CEO and airline were criticized for their response to last month’s crash, which killed two Air Canada pilots.

Prior to the accident, Mr. Rousseau and the Air Canada board were working to a schedule that would have seen the CEO announce his departure in the summer of 2027 and step down in October of that year, according to two sources familiar with the process.

Mr. Rousseau and the board decided to move up the transition by a year in the wake of the controversy, which centred on the CEO’s inability to speak French when responding to the LaGuardia accident, despite the CEO’s past promises to learn the language. French and English are both official languages of the airline.

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The Globe and Mail is not naming the sources because they are not authorized to speak for the airline.

Christophe Hennebelle, an Air Canada spokesman, declined to comment on the timing and circumstance behind Mr. Rousseau’s departure.

“He announced to the board that he was planning on retiring,” Mr. Hennebelle said by phone.

Mr. Hennebelle said the airline has been looking at internal CEO candidates for more than two years, and in January began interviewing external candidates. He declined to discuss names.

Air Canada has hired executive search firms Egon Zehnder and Korn Ferry to assist in the process.

In the past, succession at Air Canada has played out smoothly, over several years. In January 2019, Air Canada named Mr. Rousseau deputy CEO and heir apparent to then-CEO Calin Rovinescu. Mr. Rousseau got the top job two years later.

Over the past two weeks, Air Canada’s board has had to move forward on succession in the midst of a crisis. Mr. Rousseau’s decision to respond to the LaGuardia crash with a video done almost entirely in English drew criticism from politicians of all stripes and dominated media in Quebec.

Last week, federal Industry Minister Mélanie Joly, said Mr. Rousseau’s video showed “a lack of empathy and a lack of sensitivity.”

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Last Thursday, all but one member of Quebec’s National Assembly voted in favour of a motion demanding Mr. Rousseau step down.

Several members of the 12-person Air Canada board, which includes three Quebec residents and a chair who lives in Europe, initially pushed for rallying around the embattled CEO and sticking to the original retirement plan. As the firestorm continued, Mr. Rousseau and the entire board agreed to speed up the CEO’s departure, the sources said.

Three potential candidates to be the next leader of the country’s largest airline include executives who share two characteristics: They know Air Canada well and speak fluent French.

One target in Air Canada’s search is the airline’s former chief operating officer, Benjamin Smith, according to the sources. He left the airline in August, 2018 to become CEO of Air France-KLM Group.

Mr. Smith started his career as a customer-service agent at Air Ontario and ran a corporate travel service before joining Air Canada in 1999. In 2022, he signed a new five-year contract with Paris-based Air France-KLM.

Mr. Smith is also vice-chair of Calgary-based WestJet Group, Air Canada’s major domestic rival. In 2025, Air France-KLM acquired an equity stake in WestJet from owner Onex Corp., building on a long-standing partnership that includes codeshare agreements on flights.

If Air Canada can entice Mr. Smith, aged 52, to trade Paris for Montreal, he could be in for a raise and less political interference in his compensation.

Last year, Mr. Smith made €4.9-million or about $7.8-million at Air France-KLM. Air Canada paid Mr. Rousseau $13.1-million in 2025, up from $12.4-million in 2024.

The Netherlands government owns a stake in Air France-KLM. In 2020, the Dutch finance minister called Mr. Smith’s pay package “incomprehensible” and “unacceptable” after the airline posted significant losses at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Smith subsequently agreed to give up his bonus and a quarter of his salary.

Possible internal Air Canada candidates for the top job include chief commercial officer Mark Galardo, who oversees the airline’s global network and runs its sales, marketing and cargo divisions.

Air Canada chief financial officer John Di Bert, who joined the airline three years ago, is also a possible candidate. Mr. Di Bert previously served as CFO of aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc.

Mr. Rousseau was Air Canada’s CFO for 14 years prior to landing the top job.