A child passionate about flying takes a photo next to an airplane in 1999; more than 20 years later, she recreated the photo

When Gloria Fila as a kid, planes were like a home away from home. The daughter of a flight attendant and an Austrian Airlines pilot who met at work, Fila used to accompany her parents on business trips.

There are pictures of her frolicking happily in an airplane seat. Some of her earliest memories involve airplanes, and from a very young age, she loved every minute of it in the air.

“I was always excited,” she said. “I can’t remember a single time I was scared on a plane.”

When Fila’s father wasn’t flying commercial flights, he took his daughter out on private planes.

“He always took me along,” recalls Fila. “And I would always specifically ask to do some stunts with the plane because I loved it so much and it was the best thing.”

childhood photo

There is a photo of young Fila that she feels symbolizes her childhood love of aviation, taken in 1999 when she was just two years old and on holiday in the Maldives.

She is in the foreground, dressed in a blue plaid dress and pulling a bright yellow suitcase in the shape of the children’s character Winnie the Pooh. In the background is an Airbus A340 jet. The photo was taken shortly before Fila and her family boarded the plane to return to her hometown of Vienna, Austria.

“It’s one of our favorite family photos,” says Fila.

Whenever Fila, now 26, reflects on his love of aviation, this photo comes to mind. As she was very young on vacation in Maldives, she doesn’t remember the exact moment when the picture was taken.

“But I remember parts of that trip, because one of my parents was there on duty, so the other one was flying with me there,” Fila says. “I have great memories of that trip even though I was so little.”

When Fila graduated from college, she got a job at a bank in Austria. She always wanted to work in aviation, but as she got older, she started to wonder if this was just a dream she inherited from her parents.

Fila decided it was “very important” to try to work in another area first. “Do I love aviation just because of my parents, or do I really love it as much as they do too?” she wondered at the time.

“But after a year and a half, I said, ‘Okay, that’s it, I’m going to quit my office job. And I’m finally going to pursue what I really love,’” recalls Fila. “And that’s when I decided to be a flight attendant.”

dream job

Fila qualified as a flight attendant for Austrian Airlines in 2022. She loved the job right away. Working at 30,000 feet felt right. Every day when she went to work Fila felt lucky.

“The plane has been the most present thing in my life – and aviation in general. To this day, I really love it, it’s what really makes my job, for me, very special”, says Fila.

She also loves meeting like-minded passengers from all over the world and crew members. “We don’t always fly with the same colleagues. So we mingle and every time you actually meet new people. However, we are all recruited with the same passion”, says Fila.

recreated photo

Whenever Fila boarded a white and red Austrian Airlines aircraft, she found herself thinking about that childhood photo.

So, after a few months of work, Fila had an idea – she would recreate the photo, more than 20 years later, with the help of her teammates. One day, at the end of a shift, Fila showed a photo of that photo, saved on her cell phone, to some colleagues and asked if they would help her make an updated 2022 version.

Fila is once again in the foreground, now proudly wearing his red Austrian Airlines uniform. Her suitcase is elegant and dark in color, not shaped like a beloved childhood character. And in the background, the aircraft behind her is an A320, rather than an A340, parked at Vienna Airport.

Fila sent the recreated photo to her family, who loved it. Her parents – who Fila says are “super supportive” of the move to aviation – were particularly delighted with this recreation of one of her favorite photos.

Performing a dream

In the months that followed, Fila regularly showed both photos – the original and the recreation – to other crew members during downtime on flights. She once showed them to a flight attendant who was on her way to Austrian Airlines headquarters. This colleague loved both photos and asked if they could share them on the airline’s social media accounts.

When you finally do or find what you really love – there is no better feeling than that, in my opinion.

Gloria Fila, flight attendant

Fila was more than happy. For her, the two photos are very personal. But they also carry a more general, universal message – about the importance of staying in touch with your childhood self and being brave enough to fulfill your childhood dreams, even when they seem out of reach.

“I totally recommend that one try it, go for it, no matter what,” says Fila. “When you finally do or find what you really love – there is no better feeling than that, in my opinion.”

Fila sees himself working in aviation for years to come and would love to recreate the photo again in the future. “That would be awesome,” she says.