Turkish Airlines receives ‘Airline Sustainability Innovation of the Year’ award from CAPA

Turkish Airlines announced this month that it received the “Airline Sustainability Innovation of the Year” award by CAPA-Centre for Aviation for its innovative sustainability efforts.

The global carrier, which puts sustainability at the center of its business model, won this award within the scope of sustainable innovation with its “Microalgae Based Sustainable Bio-Jet Fuel Project (MICRO-JET)” in which it worked closely with scientists to develop what the airline says is the world’s first carbon-negative sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The algae-to-SAF project was jointly carried out with Boğaziçi University, the goal of which was to produce biofuels from microalgae using hydrotreatment and hydrothermal liquefaction methods.

“As the airline that flies to more countries than any other airline in the world, we appreciate the sustainable aviation fuel as a key element in our sustainability strategy on reducing aviation’s environmental impact,” said Levent Konukcu, Turkish Airlines’ chief investment and technology officer. “In addition to the regular use of sustainable aviation fuel in our flights, our R&D support to the ‘Microalgae Based Sustainable Bio-Jet (MICRO-JET) Project,’ which we carry out with Boğaziçi University for the production of biofuel, and finally, being one of the signatories of the SAF Declaration, prove how much we focus on sustainable aviation fuels in the fight against climate change. Beyond the use of biofuels, the fact that our support to scientific studies in the production of this fuel is crowned with an award here today makes us proud as it proves the correctness of the steps we have taken. As the Turkish Airlines family, we will continue to invest and support sustainable aviation fuels and focus on the future of our world.”

Turkish Airlines plans to use this biofuel, which will be obtained from sustainable sources and is a project output that contributes to nine of the United Nations’ sustainable-development goals, in its flights after engine tests are carried out by Turkish Technic.

When the national flag carrier uses this fuel, it will be “one of the few global companies that can use the cleanest type of biofuel,” Turkish Airlines stated.