Air Canada appoints SAS chief Anko Van der Werff as CEO

Air Canada has appointed Anko Van der Werff, the current chief executive of Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), as its next president and chief executive officer. The announcement on Wednesday concludes a months-long search for a successor to Michael Rousseau, who will retire at the end of August. The leadership transition follows significant controversy over Rousseau's use of only English in a public statement after a fatal accident earlier this year.

Van der Werff, 51, is expected to assume his new role by the end of January 2027 and will relocate to Montreal, where Air Canada is headquartered. The airline's board of directors stated that its comprehensive global search considered several performance criteria, explicitly including the ability to communicate in French. In its announcement, Air Canada highlighted Van der Werff's multilingual abilities, noting he speaks Dutch and can communicate in French and English, with additional knowledge of Spanish, Italian, and Swedish.

The controversy that precipitated the leadership change stemmed from a video message Rousseau issued on March 23, a day after a fatal collision involving an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck on the runway at...