TORONTO — Air Canada’s Lisa Pierce is getting ready to pass the reins to François Choquette – but not before the airline had a chance to celebrate her close to 40 years of service, her many roles and accomplishments, and above all, her friendship and kindness to her team and to the travel industry.

“I’m leaving Global Sales in good hands,” said Pierce to applause at last night’s Air Canada Customer Appreciation holiday party, at Sheraton Centre Toronto.

Choquette, currently Air Canada’s Managing Director, Revenue Management, has been appointed to the new position of Head of Sales as announced last month. Choquette will take over Pierceʻs sales responsibilities starting Jan. 1.

With jokes, smiles and emotion in her voice, Pierce reflected on her Air Canada career, and the airline industry leaders she’s worked with along the way.

Pierce got her start with Air Canada as a Customer Service Manager at EWR, and steadily worked her way up. She became Sr. Director, USA Sales & Market Development in 2013, and then Managing Director, Canada & USA Sales in 2019, and then VP, Canada & USA Sales in 2020. Since 2023 she has served as VP, Global Sales & ACV.

ROSENBERG, GUILLEMETTE, GEDEON, BUREAU & MORE

“It’s been a privilege to work alongside some truly inspiring sales leaders,” said Pierce.

In the early years those leaders included Marc Rosenberg and Claude Morin. Pierce also gave a shout-out to Lucie Guillemette, who retired from Air Canada in April 2023. “Lucie’s commitment to practical, thoughtful leadership made a real impression on me,” she said.

Pierce also had high praise for John MacLeod, and for Zeina Gedeon, who served as ACV’s President and CEO from 2006 to 2012, and then came to Air Canada in Sales until 2014.

Pierce also worked with Duncan Bureau, Air Canada’s VP, Global Sales and Distribution from 2014-2018, and later President, Air Canada Rouge. Bureau passed away earlier this month at the age of 58. Pierce remembered Bureau’s “humour, passion and commitment.”

Air Canada’s Managing Director, Canada & USA Sales, Vincent Gauthier-Doré, has worked for Pierce for more than 10 years. “She’s been a mentor, a role model and one of the kindest people I’ve ever met,” he said.

“THAT IS PRECISELY WHY I JOINED AIR CANADA IN THE FIRST PLACE”

Travelweek asked Pierce why working at Air Canada has been such a special experience.

“I have had the honour and pleasure of being a part of Air Canada’s rich history. When I started Air Canada was a crown corporation, Pierre Jeanniot was our CEO, and we were celebrating our 50 year anniversary,” she said.

Over the last 38 years Pierce said she’s had the pleasure of travelling across Canada “as far west as Tofino, B.C. and as far east as St. Anthony in Newfoundland. It has been an honour of a lifetime to experience the natural beauty of this country’s land and people.”

She added that “it’s not surprising that Canada’s brand strength is one the highest globally. It’s never been a better time to share all that is great about Canada with the world, and I’m happy that Air Canada can play its part in making that happen. I know I speak for everyone at Air Canada when I say we carry that responsibility with great pride and respect. Every time we buy a new plane, add a destination to our route map, serve a customer traveling to visit family or one travelling abroad to bring business to Canada, we are doing just that. That is precisely why I joined Air Canada in the first place.”

Pierce said she’s “filled with immense gratitude to have been able to follow my dream and meet so many wonderful people along the way and I am incredibly excited about Air Canada’s New Frontiers plans.”

François Choquette, Air Canada; Charmaine Singh, Reach Global Marketing; Viktor Spysak, Air Canada

INTERVIEW WITH FRANÇOIS CHOQUETTE

Choquette says he knows he has big shoes to fill. “She’s taken it up a notch,” he said of Pierce’s tenure.

Currently Managing Director, Revenue Management, Choquette started his career in aviation more than 25 years ago with Air Canadaʻs maintenance department. He then moved to the commercial side of the airline where he worked in alliances and Aeroplan before moving to France to head sales for Air Canada in southern Europe for several years.

After coming back to Canada, François took a position with a tour operator as head of E-Commerce and International Sales for a few years, after which he rejoined the Air Canada sales team, responsible for Specialty, OTAs and Québec agencies. He then moved to Air Canadaʻs Revenue Management department, in charge of the airlineʻs Transatlantic team and, recently, all its International RM teams in the Transpacific and South America network.

Speaking to Travelweek, Choquette said he’s excited to bring all the skills from his various roles at Air Canada to his new position as Head of Sales.

Looking back on 2025, he was proud that Air Canada got ahead of the Canadian market’s downturn in U.S. travel, and acted quickly to mitigate the impact. “We knew the demand [for U.S. destinations] would be down, and we redeployed,” he said.

The move has broadened other markets for the carrier. “Our Mediterranean flights used to end at the end of September. Now they go all the way through. We’re seeing huge demand for places like Portugal and Spain well into November.”

By summer 2026 Air Canada will be the second largest North America carrier in transatlantic capacity. The largest? Air Canada’s Star Alliance partner United Airlines.

Last night’s event included delegations from noteworthy destinations announced by Air Canada this year, including Rio de Janeiro, and Budapest.

A lot of growing destinations for Air Canada were traditionally VFR markets, said Choquette. “Now leisure travellers want to see them too.”

Jeanette Faria, VoX International; Mena Nastasi, Air Canada; Sana Keller, Pulse Communications

Meanwhile business travel has rebounded nicely for the airline. “Our corporate travel markets are doing really well,” he said.

How is transborder travel doing now? Choquette said the numbers on transborder routes are still down by the teens. “It’s plateaued,” he said. “The U.S. has always been a very natural destination for Canadians, and it continues to be. Places like Orlando, those routes are still very healthy.”

He said he’s also excited about Air Canada’s expansion at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport, announced in October 2025 with new flights to LGA, BOS, ORD and IAD starting in spring 2026. “Toronto is and always will be our hub,” he said.

Travelweek also asked Choquette about Air Canada’s travel advisor partners.

“Travel agencies’ development is our development,” he said, adding that Air Canada’s new routes will truly take off with agents’ help. “We need travel agents to ask their clients, ‘Have you thought about Brazil?’, and let them know how to get there with Air Canada, and how they can vacation there safely with no concerns.”

Even with all the tech these days – specifically, AI, of course – travel advisors are still hugely important, he added. “Researching and booking travel is still an emotional thing for people,” he said. “The expectations are so high. The travel advisor community is very important to us. We need a healthy distribution landscape.”

Lead image caption (l-r): Air Canada’s Vincent Gauthier-Doré, Lisa Pierce and François Choquette