Dubai: There were days when Fernanda Lugate opened the refrigerator at home and found only eggs and water. Her mother, Angela, worked as a maid, cleaning other people's houses, but sometimes there was barely enough money to pay the rent.
Today, the 36-year-old Brazilian works as cabin crew with Etihad Airways, serving passengers in business class. She has travelled to London, Toronto and destinations in Spain, and is studying for a career in private aviation.
“Born on a farm, look at my life,” she says.
In fact, she hadn’t flown until she joined her aviation programme.
“I had never flown before, and I was afraid I might not like it. So I bought a discounted ticket to Natal, in northeastern Brazil, to find out. But I loved it from the very first moment. I even enjoy turbulence!”
A childhood on a farm
Lugate grew up in Varre-Sai, a rural municipality on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her parents separated. Until she was nine, Lugate lived with her grandparents on their farm while Angela, her mum, who had little formal education, worked in another city.
At nine, she went to live with her mother. Money was scarce. They struggled with rent and food.
Angela eventually met a man Lugate speaks of with affection. He treated her as his own daughter and helped raise her. The family later moved to Armação dos Búzios, a coastal resort town in Rio de Janeiro.
Lugate was 14 when she began helping her mother clean houses. She went to school, then worked in the homes of wealthier families to bring in additional money.
Around the same time, she qualified for a free Spanish-language course through a government programme. Portuguese was her first language.
At 15, she found another way to earn money: selling tourist excursions on the beach.
One day, while she was approaching visitors and persuading them to book boat trips, a hotel owner noticed her sales skills. He offered her a job.
Lugate began working as a hotel receptionist. Her Spanish helped her communicate with tourists from elsewhere in South America.
Fernanda Lugate in Lisbon. Picture: Supplied, @fernandalugatThe owner, impressed by her work, eventually made her his personal assistant. Her responsibilities expanded to hotel administration, purchasing and managing his schedule.
But she was still studying.
At one stage, her day began with school at 7am. She attended classes and courses before reporting to the hotel, where she worked until 11pm. Some days stretched to 14 or 16 hours.
“I used to have a very hard life,” she recalls.
When her younger sister, Flavia, was born, Angela suffered complications after the delivery. Lugate helped care for the baby, sometimes returning from work to another night of interrupted sleep.
The first flight
In her final year of school, a teacher helped Lugate consider possible careers. Nothing particularly interested her until aviation came up.
She liked serving people, organising things and making guests comfortable. She finished secondary school in December 2008. The following January, she enrolled in an aviation training programme.
The course required journeys from Búzios to Rio de Janeiro, taking around three and a half hours. With her hotel responsibilities continuing, she recalls going months without a proper day off.
In February 2011, she joined TAM, the Brazilian airline that later became part of LATAM. In 2013, she lost her job during a round of cuts. She worked as a waitress in São Paulo before returning to the airline in April 2015.
This time she remained until 2020. In 2019, she received recognition for her cabin crew performance. Then COVID-19 arrived.
Two dogs and six months in Dubai
As airlines cut staff and aircraft were grounded, Lugate found herself unemployed again.
She had always been careful with money. Her savings allowed her to survive.
She began coaching aspiring flight attendants online, teaching interview preparation and sharing what she had learnt via Instagram. She built the course herself, including its marketing. It brought in some income, but wasn’t much.
“I was feeling I was wasting my time. Learning nothing.”
She could speak Portuguese and Spanish, but her limited English restricted her opportunities.
She decided to spend six months abroad learning the language. Her partner, who had also lost his aviation job, agreed to accompany her.
Fernanda Lugate in London. Picture: Supplied, @fernandalugatTheir options were limited by pandemic travel restrictions and the vaccines they had received in Brazil. According to Lugate, Dubai was the only place that would accept their vaccination status and allow them to bring their two Pomeranians, Cyndi Lauper and Romeo.
They arrived from São Paulo on October 17, 2021.
The plan was simple: study English and live on their savings. But the money was disappearing faster than expected.
Lugate took freelance waitressing assignments. She found work connected to Expo 2020 Dubai, including shifts at pavilions, taking whatever hospitality work she came her way.
In December, her partner received an offer from Emirates. The six-month plan changed. They decided to stay.
Starting again
Lugate found work supporting KLM's social-media customer service through a third-party provider, responding to passenger enquiries and assisting customers online.
She remained in that role for around a year and nine months, taking additional freelance assignments on her days off.
In November 2023, she joined Etihad Airways. She began in economy class and was subsequently promoted to business class, where she now works.
“It's a pleasure. I serve … I am happy.” But she wants to do more.
Dubai-it made the impossible reachable
Lugate is now training for private aviation, using her days off to develop the specialised hospitality skills required.
She is also considering personal-assistant roles, drawing on the experience she gained as a teenager managing the hotel owner's schedule in Brazil.
Her ambition is to work in private aviation, where she believes she can combine the different skills she has spent her life acquiring.
When she was younger, people suggested that she apply to airlines in the Gulf. She dismissed the idea. She could not speak English well enough.
“It was unbelievable. Unreachable,” she recalls.
Then she came to Dubai.
“Everything became reachable.”
Lugate and her partner live in Dubai with their dogs.
“In Dubai, I am willing to do more,” she says. “You have huge opportunities to grow.”
“Don't wait for opportunity to come like a shower. Make your own opportunity.”
Dubai, she says, has given her something she did not always have growing up, “Gives you ambition. Motivates you, everything is possible.”
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Anupa Kurian is a Dubai-based senior editor and writer with nearly 28 years in journalism. She has been a food editor. Anupa writes across gastronomy, culture, health, environment and the people who make a city what it is, drawn to stories that reveal themselves in the details.
