Michael Rousseau is out. Retiring? Let’s call it what it was. A firing in all but name. The LaGuardia incident blew it open. The language barrier was the final straw for Quebec’s frustration with a leader who spent his tenure barely showing up and never mastering French.
To be honest Rousseau was invisible. A dud. The real engine room belonged to the two Marks — Galardo and Nasr. They held the airline together.
So who comes next. Inside promotion or outside hire. Bloomberg has a name. It isn’t the obvious one. It isn’t even who I’d pick.
Anko van der Werff. Current CEO of SAS. He’s been steering that ship through bankruptcy and alliance shifts for five years. Before SAS Avianca. Before that a resume dotted with stops at Aeromexico Air France-KLM and Qatar Airways. He knows the business. He knows how to break things and put them back together differently.
But here is the catch.
Van der Werff speaks English Dutch and Spanish. His French? Basic at best.
Air Canada just said it loudly. “Proudly headquartered in Montreal.” They listed French proficiency as a performance criterion. It feels like a direct swipe at the outgoing boss. Yet van der Werff keeps leading the pack. Maybe he learns fast. Rousseau didn’t.
This isn’t settled. But it’s happening.
Van der Werff has a mixed rep. Some people like him others don’t. If he lands this job expect a shockwave. Air Canada stock is sitting at half its pre-pandemic value. The financials are ugly. The guidance is suspended. This is a rescue mission not a victory lap.
Think about the implications.
Air Canada usually promotes from within. Van der Werff would be an outsider. He’d bring his own team. That means layoffs or transfers for the current crew. Including those very competent Marks. The internal hierarchy would collapse overnight.
And look at the irony. Ben Smith used to run Air Canada as President before moving to Air France-KLM. If he had stayed if he had become CEO would we have had this Rousseau mess. Probably not. But history doesn’t deal in maybes.
Then there’s SAS itself. Air France-KLM wants control. They’ll likely have a say in whether van der Werff can leave or if they want him there. Is he actually secure? Or is he shopping his resume because his own throne is on fire?
It’s messy. Hiring an outsider for a culture fix works. See American Airlines. But Air Canada needs a financial overhaul. Do you bring in a fixer from Europe to tear down the system while competent leaders sit below him watching. Seems wasteful.
The industry is burning right now. Executives are falling everywhere. This feels like another domino tipping.
We don’t know who wins. But we know one thing.
The existing leadership isn’t going to like it.
