Air Canada has named SAS CEO Anko van der Werff as its next President and Chief Executive Officer, choosing an outside airline executive at a moment when the carrier has made real progress but still faces an important question: will the next chapter be about smart growth, or “disciplined capital allocation” that slowly erodes the customer experience?
Air Canada Names SAS CEO Anko van der Werff As Its Next CEO
Air Canada has announced that Anko van der Werff, currently President and CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, will become its next President and Chief Executive Officer by the end of January 2027.
Van der Werff will also join Air Canada’s Board of Directors. He succeeds Michael Rousseau, who previously announced his retirement after 19 years with the company and a tenure as CEO that became increasingly overshadowed by controversy over his inability, or unwillingness, to communicate in French. I have written before about why French matters for the Air Canada CEO, especially with the airline “proudly” headquartered in Montréal.
Air Canada Board Chair Vagn Sørensen praised van der Werff’s international aviation experience, noting his leadership roles at SAS, Avianca, Aeroméxico, KLM, and Qatar Airways. Sørensen added:
“We are confident he will drive further value-creating growth and transformation while maintaining our commitment to disciplined capital allocation.”
That phrase certainly caught my attention.
Van der Werff has more than 25 years of airline experience. He led SAS through a major transformation, including bankruptcy protection, a shift away from Star Alliance, and the carrier’s move toward SkyTeam under Air France-KLM influence. Before SAS, he served as CEO of Avianca and held senior roles at Aeroméxico, Qatar Airways, and KLM.
To his credit, he is an experienced airline executive with a genuinely global résumé.
But the appointment is already causing controversy in Canada because van der Werff is not a native French speaker. Air Canada says the search considered the ability to communicate in French, and its own biographical note says he speaks Dutch, can communicate in French, speaks English, and has also learned Spanish, Italian, and Swedish at various levels during his career.
I understand the concern, but it is not my primary concern here.
The French Issue Matters, But I Am Not Going To Assume Failure
Of course the CEO of Air Canada should be able to communicate in French.
More than a petty Québec obsession, Air Canada is headquartered in Montréal, operates under Canadian language obligations, and occupies a unique place in Canadian public life. Rousseau’s repeated missteps on this issue were fundamentally about respect.
At this point, I am not ready to assume van der Werff will repeat that mistake.
The Air Canada board is not stupid. It knew exactly what happened to Rousseau. It knew the French issue would be scrutinized immediately and that appointing a Dutch executive from SAS would raise questions in Québec and beyond.
So I am going to assume that van der Werff already showed enough progress in French to satisfy the board, assured directors that he will continue learning, and understands that this is not optional. A man who speaks Dutch, English, Spanish, and has learned other languages over the course of his career is presumably capable of making serious progress in French if he prioritizes it.
He should prioritize it.
If he does, that issue can be managed…but let’s not get distracted by that.
My larger concern is not whether he can learn French. My concern is why he was chosen.
“Disciplined Capital Allocation” Makes Me Nervous
Air Canada has done a lot right in recent years.
Its onboard product is competitive. Aeroplan remains one of the more compelling loyalty programs in the world. The airline has invested in new and refreshed lounges, including a growing premium lounge footprint. Its route map is useful and increasingly interesting. It is a Star Alliance carrier with a strong North American position and solid global reach.
In short, I think it’s on the right track and we’ve seen the sort of smart investment that will pay dividends as time progresses. That is why the board’s language makes me uneasy. “Drive further value-creating growth and transformation while maintaining our commitment to disciplined capital allocation” may be standard corporate-speak, but it has a very particular tone.
Maybe van der Werff will come in, sharpen the network, improve efficiency, grow intelligently, and build on the investments Air Canada has already made. I hope so. I wish him well and make no judgment in advance.
But if this appointment signals a new era of downsizing, product cutbacks, lounge austerity, loyalty program devaluation, or network retrenchment (along with requisite gaslighting to customers about the “transformation”), that would be a HUGE mistake.
Air Canada has become better because it has invested in areas customers actually notice. You generally cannot cut you way to profitability. Cutting costs can improve a quarter, but also damage an airline for years.
Why Not Mark Galardo Or Mark Nasr?
The other part of this appointment that stands out is that Air Canada did not choose from within.
Sometimes an outsider is exactly what an airline needs, but Air Canada had strong internal candidates.
Mark Galardo, Air Canada’s Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, has been deeply involved in the airline’s network and commercial strategy. Mark Nasr, Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, has impressed me as the sort of airline leader who understands both operations and passengers. I recently wrote about Nasr after he gave up his business class seat to a downgraded passenger.
Those two executives have helped shape much of what is working at Air Canada today. If the board wanted continuity with refinement, it had internal options. I think either men would have been excellent leaders of Air Canada.
Instead, it chose an outsider known for transformation.
It may say the board wants a more aggressive financial reset and it certainly implies a belief that Air Canada’s current trajectory is not producing enough shareholder value. As he did at SAS, directors want someone with experience restructuring airlines under pressure.
Maybe they are right, but as a passenger, the choice makes me cautious.
CONCLUSION
Air Canada has chosen SAS CEO Anko van der Werff as its next President and CEO, bringing in an experienced international airline executive from outside the company.
Much of the immediate controversy concerns his French ability. I understand that concern, but I am willing to assume he knows what is expected and will make French a priority. The Air Canada board surely understood how sensitive this issue would be after the Rousseau era.
My greater concern is strategic. Air Canada has invested nicely in its product, lounges, loyalty program, and network. It would be foolish to bring in an outsider to start cutting away the very things that have made the airline more competitive.
I wish van der Werff the best and will judge him by what he does. But the board’s language, and the decision to pass over strong internal leaders like Mark Galardo and Mark Nasr, makes me wonder whether Air Canada’s next chapter will be about building on progress or squeezing it.
image: Air Canada
Well, first of all it is Canada. Second of all, the French affection for the Dutch culture and language (or the Walloons for the Flemish, if you will), is rather well known. So what does that lead one to expect?
Maybe this is good for SAS because SAS is a cluster. Sure, they’ve improved their onboard product with the intra-Europe business class but it’s not consistently implemented. They will offer business class with meals and champagne on short regional flights between Oslo and Copenhagen or Copenhagen and Stockholm but not equally long or longer domestic flights like Oslo to Trondheim. Don’t get me started on the lounges and customer service. The lounges are below standard. The customer service is horrendous.
Initially, I assume that van der Werff will make some effort to speak French. And he will not enter with Rousseau’s greatest problem – being an arrogant anglophone for whom living in Montreal for 20 years was insufficient to encourage him to use French occasionally.
Canada is a sorry country. Canadians love to rip each other off with high prices.
You’re a sorry country. Sorry, not sorry.
He did preside over improvements to the premium customer experience at SAS through the introduction of business class, some lounge investment etc. On the one hand, he may be capable of delivering a strategic vision, on the other he’s been job hopping and would probably jump again if a juicy opportunity were to open up elsewhere.
From a FFP perspective, I don’t think there were any catastrophic changes to LifeMiles during his tenure even when Avianca was slashing and burning services and costs, and he was CEO when the SAS million miler campaign was launched so I suspect he’s happy to leave things in the hands of the loyalty people and listen to what they say.
So his track record as Airline CEO is Avianca (the less said the better) and SAS which has been a complete mess. Its only started to turn around now that AFKL are getting involved. If he was any good, surely AFKL would want him to stay. I suspect he jumped before he was pushed out at AFKL.
This does not bode well for AC customers. Ability or not to speak French, is just a distraction