Benjamin Smith (Canadian businessman)

Benjamin Smith (born 27 August 1971) is a Canadian businessman and airline executive. He has been the CEO of Air France-KLM since 2018. Prior to that, he was Air Canada's President and Chief Operating Officer.

Benjamin Smith was born on 27 August 1971 in Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of Western Ontario. He lives in Paris with his family.

A life-long aviation enthusiast, he began his career in 1990 as a unionised ground Customer Sales and Service Agent at Air Ontario, a regional airline subsidiary of Air Canada, in parallel with his studies. In 1992 he left the airline to open a retail corporate travel agency, which he operated for eight years.

In 1999, he worked as a consultant before rejoining Air Canada. As managing director of Air Canada Tango, he was responsible for writing the business plan and successfully launching this new low-cost subsidiary, with 21 aircraft transferred from Air Canada. In 2001, Tango introduced a new commercial model: the subsidiary offered a blend of low-cost and full-service products and services which proved successful.

In 2004, the Tango model was rolled out across Air Canada's entire North American network. The Tango operation was absorbed into the mainline carrier with the brand Tango kept as Air Canada's base fare under the new commercial model developed at Tango. Subsequently, Smith was appointed vice president, Network Planning, within Air Canada.

In 2007, Smith was appointed to the Air Canada executive management team as Chief Commercial Officer, responsible for Network Planning, Revenue Management, Marketing (including brand management, customer experience, and loyalty), Cargo, Alliances, and Global Sales. He is described as the "driver of Air Canada's commercial strategy" leading to the development of three global hubs in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. He contributed to the transformation of the airline, including the purchase of a new large fleet of wide-body and narrow-body aircraft. Overall, he led a global network expansion resulting in links to more than 200 destinations on six continents, with a fleet of 350 aircraft.

In 2013, he launched the low-cost company Air Canada Rouge.

In 2014, he was the chief negotiator with the airline's pilot and cabin crew unions which resulted in landmark 10-year collective agreements. In the same year, he was appointed president, Airlines (Air Canada, Rouge, Express and Cargo) and Chief Operating Officer of Air Canada.