Inside SmartIST, On Stage at Air Pitch Day

Shortlisted from 38 countries

Syntask is one of 45 startups shortlisted for the first phase of the Turkish Airlines Terminal Startup Accelerator Program 2026 — selected from hundreds of applications submitted across 38 countries. And the program didn’t start with a pitch deck — it started on the ground.

Field visit — SmartIST

We spent the day inside Turkish Cargo’s SmartIST hub, on the apron, and across the passenger terminals — seeing the operational reality our AI would eventually need to explain, not just the process diagrams. That visit shaped how we scoped our demo: ULD Cross-Axis Risk Intelligence, built directly from what we saw on the ground.

On stage at Air Pitch Day

Weeks later, we presented that solution on stage in front of juries made up of Turkish Airlines business unit leaders and technology teams — the same people who own the problem we’re solving.

What made it valuable

Jury evaluations are underway, and the startups advancing to the next stage will be announced in the coming weeks. Regardless of outcome, real operational access — not a simulated dataset — is what made this stage valuable. It’s the same principle Syntask is built on: decision intelligence has to be grounded in what actually happens on the ramp, not what a dashboard assumes happens.