To be fair (I know, that term again ) your observation is true for companies that are (part-)state-owned. But for other major French companies, we have seen a mix of patterns: L'Oréal had a British CEO for a very long time, Sanofi had a Austrian CEO for some time, and AXA just appointed a German CEO.

The thing that makes me a little mad is how for everyone it seems to go by itself that a shareholder who only has 16% and whose interests are not aligned with the those of the company de-facto decides and promotes someone to the CEO job according to criteria which do not make sense in the situation the company is in. Air France is a French-Dutch company (which is not the same as Transdev which is a French company with a Dutch subsidiary), operating in a global market (which is not the same as operating in a multitude of local markets around the globe), where customers must be won every day (which is not the same as winning a contract for a public transport network every couple of years like Transdev or RATP Dev). Moreover, Air France is in a multi-year restructuring and re-positioning exercise (at least it should be) - and they hire a guy who is aged 63?? He apparently has been successful in managing the difficult labour-relations context at SNCM, and many of us know that this must have been a "tough one". But doesn't that qualify him rather for the job of CEO of Air France instead of CEO of the AFKL holding?

Also, the chap has not more than maybe 7-8 years of private sector experience. Which of course does not matter a lot to people that are convinced that being chief of staff to the Prefet of Finistère or heading the French Tourism Office in NY give you all the right experience that you need to play against Willie Walsh or Tim Clark (what was Clark doing five years ago? Building Emirates into a global airline giant. What was Janaillac doing five years ago? Working for the Paris underground company).

Maybe he is just a placeholder for 2-3 years and then another, who will turn the company around as he himself has nothing to lose, and then a fresh face will come after the bloodbath and take the company to a brighter future. But maybe he is just another puppet who'll manage through the corridors of Matignon and Elysée and ask his political friends to whom he has to be grateful to have gotten the job how far he may go in responding to the whims of pilots, rampies and check-in agents.