In order for our customers to benefit from truly local knowledge and have the very best experience, we have partnerships with suppliers across the world who provide travel services, transport (including cruises and airlines), and accommodation. We also partner with suppliers of IT and other office facilities and communication equipment, and professional services such as legal advisers, insurers and auditors. In recognition of our extensive product supply chain, we have specialist regional product teams based in our offices, who oversee this and are responsible for selecting and managing our relationships with the very best local suppliers. We have clear and detailed guidelines in place for tenders in relation to modern slavery and human trafficking, and compliance with the Modern Slavery Act is a requirement in our land supplier contracts, we made improvements to our standard ground handler contracts, which are accompanied by a Supplier Code of Conduct, and these continue to be rolled out.

The Supplier Code of Conduct sets out our expectations of our local land suppliers, including obligations to ensure that no forced or child labour is taking place in their business, that their processes ensure all workers are legally permitted to work, and that their employees are paid at least the legal minimum wage. We also ask our ground handlers to place the same obligations on subcontractors they work with. In addition, we have the ability to audit our ground handlers’ adherence to the Modern Slavery Act and ethical practices, and are able to take action if terms have been breached. 

In  2023 we launched our Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Framework, which further demonstrates our commitment to sustainability by focusing on five key areas: community; environment, marketplace, workplace and governance. For each of these areas, we have set goals that either align with the UN Sustainable Development Goals or with our own commitments to ensure that each year we make a positive impact internally within our business and externally with suppliers and communities. Specifically, our human rights goal focuses on our commitment to reduce the risk of our activities harming the rights of others, and taking the necessary steps to avert, mitigate or remedy potential, actual or perceived abuses. .

Our training and policies on slavery and human trafficking

We have reviewed and updated our Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy, which applies to all  employees, with certain sections sign-posted for suppliers. This policy reflects our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity and to support this further,