Air Canada CEO apologizes for English-only condolence video

CEO Michael Rousseau’s unilingual condolence message to the pilots killed in a collision in New York over the weekend was seen as “lacking judgement.”

In Air Canada's French fallout, it is unfairly treated as both a private and public entity - The Globe and Mail

CEO of Air Canada, Michael Rousseau, apologized Thursday for his English-only message of condolence after a deadly airplane crash in a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport.

Two Air Canada pilots died when the Air Canada Jazz flight they were landing collided with a fire truck on the runway on Sunday. One of the pilots was from the French-speaking province of Quebec.

Air Canada is also headquartered in Quebec’s largest city of Montreal.

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Rousseau was widely criticized for the four-minute condolence video posted online, which only included the French words “bonjour” and “merci.” Many have called for his resignation over the incident.

“I am deeply saddened that my inability to speak French has diverted attention from the profound grief of the families and the great resilience of Air Canada’s employees, who have demonstrated outstanding professionalism despite the events of the past few days,” Rousseau said in a statement.

The CEO admitted that “despite many lessons over several years,” he was still unable to express himself adequately in French.

Quebec Premier François Legault said that Rousseau had promised to learn the language upon his appointment as president of the airline in February 2021.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney criticized Rousseau’s conduct, saying he was “very disappointed, as others are, rightly so, in this unilingual message,” noting that Canada is a bilingual country with two official languages.

Carney said it showed a “lack of judgement and a lack of compassion.”

LaGuardia reopens runway

Meanwhile, in New York City, LaGuardia airport administrators reopened the runway where two pilots died.

The runway and its associated infrastructure were “repaired, inspected, and confirmed” to meet Federal Aviation Administration regulations for safe operation, the agency overseeing the region’s airports said.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has continued its investigation into the crash. The plane’s wreckage and the fire truck were both towed from the crash site late Wednesday.