Air Canada’s CEO was appointed on the basis of his managerial abilities.

Now, as the CEO of Canada’s largest airline, knowing at least some French, while not a requirement, would only be an asset. He has committed to learning French, and learning a new language later in life is not easy, as I know from personal experience, having started to learn English after the age of 40. Being able to “baragouine” a few sentences in French within a few years will be an accomplishment for him.

In this situation, given that one of the pilots who passed away was Québécois, he could have prepared a short written message in French to properly extend Air Canada’s condolences to the pilot’s family in their own language. To do that, however, the CEO would have needed to show a degree of sensitivity, and this is where, in my view, both he and his communications team fell short.

From my own experience, after flying with Air Canada for a few decades, I have come to believe that this lack of sensitivity filters down from the top. I say this based on a few incidents, such as a crew member opening an aircraft lavatory door from the outside, with the door fully closed and the “occupied” indicator clearly visible, without first checking whether anyone was inside by knocking or asking, and then showing no sensitivity even after the matter was brought to the attention of this very CEO and several Air Canada managers or another incident in which, after a late arrival at a European airport, the mobile boarding stairs took a long time to reach the aircraft. When a business-class passenger anxiously asked what options she had to avoid missing her connection, a crew member responded, “Yeah, you could jump onto the tarmac to make things go quicker.”

The Prime Minister’s expression of disappointment with the CEO is nothing more than a political gimmick. His team could instead examine why Air Canada has been allowed to accumulate an 18-month backlog of complaints (from their website) and press for prompt resolutions.