PEGASUS HAVA TASIMACILIGI ANONIM SIRKETI

Their core work

Pegasus Airlines is one of Turkey's largest low-cost carriers, operating scheduled passenger flights across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia. In the H2020 context, their role is that of an operational industry partner — they contribute real flight data, airline operational knowledge, and end-user validation to aviation safety research consortia. Specifically, they have participated in projects that mine historical flight records to improve safety intelligence and develop automated decision-support tools for air traffic controllers. Their value to research projects is precisely what academic partners lack: access to live airline data and the ability to validate findings against real operational conditions.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (SafeClouds.eu, 2016–2019), Pegasus participated in broad aviation safety intelligence research — the emphasis was on aggregating and mining historical safety data without a specific focus on real-time decision tools. By their second project (SafeOPS, 2021–2022), the scope had tightened considerably: the work centred on live operational decision support for controllers, go-around prediction, and confidentiality-preserving fusion of airline and ANSP data streams. The trajectory is clear — from retrospective safety analysis toward real-time, automated operational support systems.

Pegasus is moving from broad safety research participation toward applied, real-time ATM automation tools — future collaborations in predictive flight operations, digital tower systems, or AI-driven ATC decision support would align well with this direction.

How they like to work

Pegasus has been a participant in every H2020 project — never a coordinator — which reflects the typical posture of a large airline in research consortia: they are sought for their data and operational credibility rather than for project management. With 16 unique partners across 8 countries from just 2 projects, they engage in genuinely multinational consortia rather than tight bilateral arrangements. Working with them means gaining access to a real airline's cooperation, but expect their contribution to be focused on data sharing and operational validation rather than technical development.

Pegasus has built a network of 16 distinct consortium partners spanning 8 countries through just two projects — a broad footprint for such limited participation, suggesting they joined well-connected European aviation research consortia. Their partnerships are almost certainly centred on the SESAR Joint Undertaking ecosystem and aviation safety research communities across EU member states and associated countries including Turkey.

What sets them apart

Among Turkish organisations in H2020, Pegasus is unusual in that their value is operational rather than academic — they are one of the few actual commercial airlines to participate in EU aviation research, giving them a role no university or research institute can replicate. For consortium builders in ATM, aviation safety, or flight operations research, Pegasus fills the "real-world airline validation partner" slot that EU funding agencies actively look for to demonstrate industry relevance. Their low-cost carrier model also makes them representative of the high-volume, short-haul operations that stress-test ATM systems most heavily.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SafeClouds.eu
  The larger of the two projects (€103,938 EC contribution, 2016–2019) and Pegasus's entry into EU research — demonstrating early commitment to data-driven aviation safety intelligence at a European scale.
• SafeOPS
  A more focused, applied project (2021–2022) addressing real-time go-around prediction and confidentiality-preserving ANSP-airline data fusion — the closest Pegasus has come to contributing to deployable ATM tools.