As Turkish Airlines is making waves in the national and international arena with its sustainability-focused activities and awards, flag carrier was awarded the “Airline Sustainability Innovation of the Year” award by CAPA – Centre for Aviation for its innovative efforts within the scope of sustainability.

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

Within the scope of the “Microalgae Based Sustainable Bio-Jet Fuel Project (MICRO-JET)”, jointly carried out with Boğaziçi University, it is aimed to produce biofuels from microalgae using hydro-processed fatty acids and hydrothermal liquefaction methods.

On the award, Turkish Airlines, Chief Investment & Technology Officer, Levent Konukcu said; “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. 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, he added.”

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 the engine tests to be 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.