SunExpress Wins “Most Innovative Airline Startup” Award

SunExpress Wins “Most Innovative Airline Startup” Award

SunExpress, a joint venture between Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa, won the “Most Innovative Airline Startup” award at the Future Travel Experience, held in Dublin and focusing on innovation in the aviation sector.

At the event held for the third time this year, SunExpress was deemed worthy of the award for its artificial intelligence-based baggage weight estimation model in flight operations. The system in question facilitates fuel planning processes by predicting passenger baggage weight with high accuracy for each flight; thus, it contributes to increasing operational efficiency and reducing environmental impacts.

At the award ceremony, the airlines and airports selected as finalists presented their projects on stage to the audience consisting of jury members and industry professionals. SunExpress stood out with its effective use of artificial intelligence technology in line with its goals of increasing accuracy in flight planning, reducing fuel consumption and reducing carbon emissions, and won first place in the category with the combination of jury evaluation and participant votes.

The model, which was put into operation in April 2024, has provided tangible and measurable benefits on operational processes in a short time. Thanks to the application, the error in the zero fuel weight (ZFW) estimate of aircraft was reduced by 100–150 kg per flight, while an additional 6.2 kg of CO₂ savings were achieved on average on each flight. Instead of fixed assumptions, flight-specific, real-time estimates were used; thus, manual processes were automated.