Delta honored National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month this January with a variety of initiatives to educate and empower our people and our customers to take action against human trafficking.

Throughout the month, Delta Studio featured an exclusive collection of films curated by our partner Polaris to help our customers learn more about what human trafficking is and how to stop it.

On Jan. 19, experts from Polaris and Street Grace, organizations working to end human trafficking, along with survivor and advocate Rachel Thomas, joined Allison Ausband, Delta's E.V.P. and Chief Customer Experience Officer for a town hall discussion focused on how to fight this global crime locally.

To round out the month, Delta people from throughout the enterprise engaged with local, state and federal officials on various ways to put an end to exploitation.

On Jan. 31, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport hosted a news conference with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and first lady Marty Kemp, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, local law enforcement officials, the UPS Foundation and youthSpark, an organization that works with vulnerable children, to highlight ways to intervene in human trafficking within the aviation industry.

Meg Taylor, Delta’s Deputy General Counsel & Chief Litigation Counsel, represented Delta and emphasized the important role public-private partnerships play.

“Approximately 93 million passengers traveled through the Atlanta airport in 2022, with 75% traveling with Delta,” Taylor said. “We have the opportunity to educate millions of travelers each year on ways to identify and stop human trafficking, as we work alongside government partners at the local, state, federal and international level to prevent and stop human trafficking."

 Delta’s commitment to combat human trafficking spans more than a decade, dating back to 2011 when we became the first airline to sign the ECPAT Code of Conduct, which includes a network of organizations working together to eliminate the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Delta was also one of the 12 founding companies of the Global Business Coalition against Human Trafficking in 2012.

Since then, Delta has developed training for employees to identify and report human trafficking and more than 60,000 employees have completed the training.

A team of Delta people also traveled to Capitol Hill on Jan. 24 to lobby members of Congress on legislation to fight human trafficking.

Delta visited the offices of Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) and Georgia Rep. Nikema Williams (D), as well as Reps. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Kay Granger (R-Texas), Tim Walberg (R-Mich.) and key staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to discuss bills that support victims while holding perpetrators accountable.

“I had a friend who was exploited for cheap labor and false promises, and we see this issue on our planes and in our communities,” said Florida-based flight attendant Erica Scott. “I have utilized my training to identify human trafficking and get the proper authorities involved – sharing these firsthand experiences really conveyed a powerful message to our elected leaders.”

Delta voices will continue to be instrumental in bringing the following policies to life.

• S.9 - Trafficking Survivors Relief Act of 2022: This bill establishes a process to vacate convictions and expunge arrest records for certain criminal offenses committed by victims of human trafficking that directly result from or relate to having been a trafficking victim.
• H.R.3957 - Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act: The bipartisan bill ensures Department of Labor employees receive the proper training to recognize instances of human trafficking and refer these cases to law enforcement agencies, so perpetrators are held accountable.
• H.R.9217 - HOTEL Act of 2022: This bill establishes a priority for hotels with a zero-tolerance for human trafficking for federal employees seeking hotel accommodations. 

We encourage all our SkyMiles customers to join Delta in the fight to end human trafficking by donating miles through the SkyWish program to cover airfare for survivors and by reporting suspicious activity to the U.S. Human Trafficking Hotline.