China to dethrone US as world’s largest aviation market by mid-2020s – IATA report

The shift of China’s economy towards consumption will support strong passenger demand over the long term, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

Its 20-year Air Passenger Forecast showed the Asia-Pacific region will drive the biggest growth with “more than half the total number of new passengers over the next 20 years coming from these markets.”

Growth in the Asia-Pacific market is being driven by a combination of continued robust economic growth, improvements in household incomes and favorable population and demographic profiles.

“China will displace the United States as the world’s largest aviation market (defined as traffic to, from and within the country) in the mid-2020s,” IATA said.

According to its report, India will take third spot after the US, surpassing the UK around 2024. Indonesia is forecast to be a standout performer - the country will climb from the world’s tenth largest aviation market in 2017 to the fourth largest by 2030.

Thailand is expected to enter the top 10 markets in 2030, replacing Italy which drops out of the ranking.

IATA revealed that present trends in air transport suggest global passenger numbers could double to 8.2 billion in 2037.

“Aviation is growing, and that is generating huge benefits for the world. A doubling of air passengers in the next 20 years could support 100 million jobs globally,” said IATA’s Director General and CEO Alexandre de Juniac.

IATA, however, warned that growth prospects for air transport, and the economic benefits driven by aviation, “could be curtailed if protectionist measures are implemented by governments.”

https://www.rt.com/business/442225-china-largest-aviation-market/

Nestle sued for perpetuating child slavery overseas from headquarters in US

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has reinstated a lawsuit by a group of former child slaves accusing food conglomerates Nestle and Cargill of perpetuating slavery at Ivory Coast cocoa farms.

The ruling described the plaintiffs as ex-slaves who were kidnapped and forced to work on cocoa farms for as long as 14 hours a day without pay.

The judges said in a unanimous decision that the group could proceed with its claims despite the alleged abuses having occurred overseas.

“In sum, the allegations paint a picture of overseas slave labor that defendants perpetuated from headquarters in the United States,” the court wrote.

According to the court, the companies were “well aware” that child slave labor was pervasive in the Ivory Coast, and they had economic leverage that gave them control of cocoa production in the country. The judges said they took the ex-slaves’ “plausible allegations” as true in analyzing the case.

“Defendants provided personal spending money outside the ordinary business contract with the purpose to maintain ongoing relations with the farms so that the defendants could continue receiving cocoa at a price that would not be obtainable without child slave labor,” the court said.

After the ruling, the US unit of Vevey, Switzerland-based Nestle said forced child labor is unacceptable and has no place in the company’s supply chain.

“We have explicit policies against it and are working with other stakeholders to combat this global social problem,” the unit said.

Minneapolis-based Cargill denied all the allegations, saying it was considering an appeal. “We will not let these legal proceedings deter us from working actively every day to protect human rights, with an unwavering commitment to treating people with dignity and respect in the workplace and the communities where we do business,” Cargill said.

In 2016, the world’s largest food maker Nestle admitted the possibility of slave labor in its coffee supply chain. The company also said that it discovered forced labor in its seafood supply chains in Thailand.

The multinational is one of the most boycotted corporations in the world as violations of labor rights have been reported in the company’s factories in various countries.

Nestle became notorious over the baby milk scandal of the 1980s when it promoted and sold breast milk substitutes in under-developed countries in Africa and Latin America.

https://www.rt.com/business/442099-nestle-child-slavery-lawsuit/