Mr. Chair, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to discuss the official languages priorities of the Air Canada board of directors.
Before I begin, I'd like to share that neither English nor French is my first language, but I'll do my best to address the committee in both languages.
I would like to take a moment here to reiterate our sincere condolences to the families and loved ones of the Jazz captain and first officer who tragically lost their lives in the accident on March 22.
Turning to the subject of our appearance today, I want to assure you that our board recognizes the importance of official languages to Canadians and to our customers, employees and partners across the country.
As chair, my role is to lead the board's work as it oversees senior management and sets Air Canada's overall priorities.
The Official Languages Act has applied to Air Canada for over 50 years now and is part of our identity. We are the only airline that is subject to this act. We are proud of our responsibilities to the public. They make us a better company. We believe that all carriers should be held to the same standard.
Air Canada has a detailed linguistic action plan. Our official languages branch is responsible for implementing it, supported by a committee made up of members from several branches.
These initiatives include the recruitment of bilingual employees, language training, management awareness training, employee support tools, and internal and external communications, as well as the monitoring of progress and complaints. The destination is clear: to better serve customers in the official language of their choice and to support employees in using their preferred language at work.
We have also achieved significant progress. Since 2022, we have hired more than 5,000 bilingual employees to serve our customers. Today, nearly 50% of our customer-facing employees are qualified as bilingual, and nearly 65% have abilities in both official languages. We have made language awareness training mandatory for our employees, and 97% of customer-facing employees have completed it. As a result, the number of complaints related to our services has decreased materially. The commissioner received 85 complaints related to Air Canada in 2024-25, out of 1,200 total complaints for all federal institutions.
We take these complaints very seriously, and our team reviews each one so we can continue to improve.
The implementation of our linguistic action plan is overseen by senior leadership, and quarterly reports are submitted to the board's governance committee. These updates enable us to track our progress and ensure that official languages remain a priority.
Our leadership team reflects this priority. All members of Air Canada's executive committee are fluent in French and English.
As a company, we also understand the importance of French and the connections it helps create. As Canada diversifies its markets, Air Canada is engaging with more francophone markets around the world. We connect Canada to five cities in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Morocco, and we want to open new routes, particularly to francophone Africa.
The board recently completed a rigorous internal and external process that led to the selection of our next president and CEO. We considered a number of criteria, including aviation experience and the ability to run a global company, to have a positive impact on corporate culture and to speak French. We are proud to have recruited Anko van der Werff, a highly qualified leader who will guide Air Canada to new heights and communicate in both official languages.
I will conclude by affirming our board's commitment to both official languages.
Thank you. I'm ready to answer your questions. However, I would note that I'm more comfortable answering in English.