Air Canada’s CEO announced his retirement from the airline Monday after his inability to speak French earned him the ire of Canada’s prime minister and French-speaking Quebecers.
The Montreal-based airline said Michael Rousseau, who had worked in senior leadership at Canada’s largest airline for nearly two decades and served five years as CEO, would step down by the end of the third quarter of 2026 following outrage over an English-only video published last week in which he expressed his “deepest sorrow” for all those affected by the deadly crash of an Air Canada regional jet with an airport fire truck at LaGuardia Airport earlier this month.
