Applying to Air Canada as a bilingual candidate: the French test, the Montreal versus Toronto base question and what the recruiters told me
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#1 Air Canada, Montreal, six years, and the Canadian threads on here are Rouge and Porter and WestJet. Mainline gets a paragraph. Here is the mainline application from a bilingual Montrealer, because the French question decides more than anything else at this airline.
The bilingual requirement
Air Canada is legally required to serve passengers in both official languages, and cabin crew are the front line of that. Bilingual French and English candidates are hired first and placed anywhere. English only candidates are hired for the bases and routes that can absorb them and the numbers are smaller and the timing is slower. If you have B1 French, it is not bilingual. If you have B2 that you use, it is a conversation. If you grew up speaking it, you are the target hire.
The French test
A conversation with a French speaking recruiter, then a short written element. They test whether you can handle an announcement, a complaint and a medical situation in French, not whether you can discuss literature. Quebec French, Acadian French, France French, African French: all fine. Textbook French with no fluency: not fine.
The other languages
A third language (Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Hindi, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Arabic) is a real advantage for the language routes and there is a premium for qualified crew. Test for it at the start.
Montreal versus Toronto
Montreal: the French speaking base, the Paris and Europe flying, smaller than Toronto, cheaper to live in, a crew room that is French with English. Toronto: the biggest base, the whole network, the most junior friendly for holding a line, expensive, English with French. Vancouver: the Asia and Pacific flying, expensive, a waiting list. New hires are placed by need; bilingual candidates who want Montreal usually get it because Montreal needs French.
What the recruiters told me
At my assessment the recruiter said two things I remember. First: 'we can teach the service, we cannot teach the French'. Second: 'tell us the truth about where you can live, because a hire who refuses the base is a hire we lose'. Both are the whole application in two sentences.
The process
Online application, a video interview, an assessment day (group exercise, the language test, a one on one), a conditional offer, the background check, and training in Montreal or Toronto for about seven weeks. From application to training was five months for me.
For Anglophones
Apply anyway, be honest about the French, and consider the year of French lessons that would change your file completely. Or look at WestJet and Porter, where French is an advantage rather than a requirement. Both are good airlines. Air Canada is the one with the world.
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#2 Air Transat Montreal, and the French requirement at Air Canada is the reason half my base exists: Anglophones who wanted long haul from Montreal and could not pass the French. Emilie is being kind. It is a wall.
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#3 Air Canada Toronto, and 'we cannot teach the French' is exactly what my recruiter said too. I am bilingual from an immersion school and it was the whole interview.
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#4 WestJet Calgary, and welcome to the Anglophones. French is a plus for us, not a door. The trade is the network. Air Canada has Paris. We have Calgary to Cancún.
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#5 Porter, and the third option is real. Bilingual helps at Porter for the Montreal base and is not a requirement anywhere else. The Canadian choice is now four airlines and one language question.
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#6 In training at a Canadian carrier, and I did the Air Canada assessment with B2 French and did not get through the language stage. Emilie's B2 description is fair: I had it on paper and not in my mouth.
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#7 Rouge, and Rouge has the same bilingual requirement in principle and a slightly softer application in practice. The flow to mainline later needs the French anyway. Learn it.
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#8 WestJet Vancouver, and the Vancouver Air Canada waiting list is real: Asia flying, everyone wants it, years of waiting. Montreal for the French speakers is the fast door.