Our BA interns did not spend their first weeks in a training room. They spent them at Cluj International Airport.
The AirportLabs team shared the full story on the company page - I wanted to add the founder’s view.
You do not learn to build aviation software from a slide deck. You learn it by standing on the apron. By watching a gate conflict resolve. By asking the operations team why a specific workflow breaks every time there is a delay cascade. The operation teaches you things the specification never will. That is why we bring interns to the airport first.
It is also why this matters more in 2026 than it did three years ago. AI job vacancies in Romania grew by 1,587% in the last year (Randstad 2026). More than 90% of Romanian graduates now believe AI skills are necessary to advance in their careers (NewTech Academy / EPALE, Mar 2026). Every company is talking about AI pipelines.
𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤.
An intern who has watched a real AODB orchestrate a disruption recovery understands something a prompt engineer without operational context does not: you cannot automate what you do not understand first. The airport teaches that faster than any course.
We are building systems that run the world’s most complex airports, and we are building them 100% in house. That requires people who were shaped in production environments, who understand the operation before they touch the code, and who choose to build something that lasts.
To the team who made this visit happen, and to the interns who asked the right questions: this is what in-house looks like from day one.