While travelers gorge on competitors’ cheap fares, an airline known for supersonic flights and Dior uniforms is plagued by strikes and regulations. Can a new Canadian CEO restore the brand to its former glory?

But as the hunt for a new leader wore on, Macron’s government proved flexible on both points. That opened the door for Air Canada’s Smith, who will receive annual pay of up to €4.25 million, and whose appointment was enthusiastically endorsed by Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire even before it had been officially announced. Smith will take over by the end of September.

The threatening Canadian is a rare C-suite species, but unions aren’t exactly throwing a welcome party for the new CEO. Although Smith is a French speaker who rose from running a travel agency to become COO of Canada’s largest airline, labor groups immediately condemned him for having the wrong passport. In a statement issued the morning he was appointed, a group of nine unions declared it “inconceivablethat Air France, a French company since 1933, would fall into the hands of a foreign executive” at a time of rising protectionism elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, they also took issue with Smith’s salary. Sweetening a CEO’s compensation while demanding concessions from workers tends to go down in France like a stale baguette.

Despite the government’s eagerness to reform Air France, Smith—who negotiated Air Canada’s most recent labor deals, striking unprecedented 10-year agreements with both pilots and cabin crew—can’t be assured of Macron’s backing in a confrontation with workers. The administration has so far taken a hard line, blocking a recent compromise pay deal in the hopes of applying what the anonymous official termed an “electric shock” to Air France, and dispatching Le Maire to warn the public that the airline could “disappear” if it doesn’t become more competitive. But French leaders have a long history of backing down on painful reforms when protests threaten to exhaust their political capital. The picture might be only somewhat better for Smith in the Netherlands, where KLM pilots are considering a strike to reduce their workload.