Ljubljana Airport FLY is an advanced advertising platform launched in 2021 by Fraport Slovenia in cooperation with iPROM. It serves as digital infrastructure for targeted promotion of flight destinations from Ljubljana Airport.

The platform operates on the basis of first-party data collected, managed and activated by Fraport Slovenia within the iPROM Private DMP. It enables display advertising on more than 60,000 editorial online media properties on the open web to create a highly relevant, trusted and far-reaching advertising environment.

From the beginning, the platform has used artificial intelligence for basic targeting and optimisation. In 2024, it was upgraded with a reinforcement learning engine, enabling the system to learn from the results and improve its performance over time.

Challenge

How do you create a system where AI doesn’t just support advertising, but also learns, makes autonomous decisions and increases business impact with every impression – without any additional input?

Fraport Slovenia set out to upgrade the platform to deliver greater autonomy, accuracy and efficiency through intelligence that adapts dynamically to user behaviour in real time.

 

Solution: Reinforcement Learning as The Core of the System

In 2024, Ljubljana Airport FLY was upgraded with a reinforcement learning system – an artificial intelligence engine that continuously learns from results, tests different decisions and reinforces those that deliver the greatest impact.

Factors optimised in real time by the system:

• User targeting based on micro-behavioural signals
• Budget allocation based on conversion probability
• Selection and adaptation of ad creatives
• Distribution of impressions across channels and contexts

Reinforcement learning is an artificial intelligence framework in which the system learns through trial and error by testing different choices and reinforcing the ones that have the best impact.

In 2024, the Ljubljana Airport FLY platform achieved the following:

• 29,064 flight tickets sold
• Proven improvement in distribution accuracy
• Significant gains across key performance indicators: the cost per sold ticket (CPA) decreased from €2.06 to €1.85 after the upgrade, the conversion rate increased from 12% to 15.9%, and overall campaign performance improved by 30%.

Why it works

Rather than simply following a fixed set of rules, reinforcement learning allows AI to discover which strategies lead to greater success and apply these insights to future decisions.
This is the key difference between automation and intelligence: automation executes; intelligence learns.

As a result, the Ljubljana Airport FLY platform no longer simply optimises media buying—it optimises the entire customer acquisition process.

Ljubljana Airport FLY is today the largest advertising system for tourism services in the region. It connects:

• First-party data from Fraport Slovenia (via the iPROM Private DMP)
• Advertising within a trusted environment of editorial online media properties
• Artificial intelligence that learns and optimises results

It works as a destination media infrastructure – an infrastructure model based on data, context and evolutionary optimisation.

Vision 2026

By 2026, Fraport Slovenia plans to offer the Ljubljana Airport FLY platform, which operates as a retail media network specialising in the tourism industry – to other tourism service providers such as travel agencies, hotel chains and other businesses operating within the industry.

They will gain access to:

• An advanced AI system that has already learned and optimised results
• A highly qualified audience with an expressed purchase intent
• An infrastructure that operates without reliance on external platforms

“The Ljubljana Airport FLY platform is an important step towards our digital independence and data sovereignty. With our own infrastructure and AI that learns from actual user behaviour, we have set a new standard for efficiency while retaining full control over communication with our passengers. We know that the future is no longer about one-off campaigns, but about systems that work, grow and continuously improve. Our Ljubljana Airport FLY platform is not just a technological upgrade, it’s a strategic investment in the future of tourism communication,” explained Monika Jelačič, Head of Corporate Communications at Fraport Slovenia.

The Ljubljana Airport FLY platform has achieved a 30% increase in conversions with the help of artificial intelligence powered by reinforcement learning. It has evolved from a simple tool into an intelligent system for the continuous improvement of advertising performance. Fraport Slovenia is building an intelligent digital advertising infrastructure that autonomously learns, measures, adapts and increases returns.

Targeted display advertising based on first-party data within trusted editorial online media on the open web is one of the most effective and credible forms of digital advertising today. Ljubljana Airport FLY proves that with its own, independent advertising infrastructure and thoughtful use of artificial intelligence, this approach is not only possible, but also measurable.