From cabin crew to founder: How former Emirates employee launched a laundry brand in Dubai

Dubai: Oana Lita’s journey from the skies to sustainability is one of calculated transformation.

After five and a half years as cabin crew with Emirates, Lita – the co-founder and managing director of Baya – a sustainable detergent brand - made a bold decision in 2020.

After travelling the world, she resigned from a stable career to pursue a master’s degree in entrepreneurship at the University of Amsterdam—with a mission to build something that actually mattered.

"I was 21 when I joined Emirates, and it was a great opportunity for me just to travel and expand my horizon," Lita said.

"But before 2020, I was already looking into setting up a company. It was this drive for startups, especially those that are giving back. I think it’s important to consider that Baya is a startup with an impact. This was the most important thing for me. "That pivot has proven prescient. Today, with Baya, Lita hopes to do some genuine good for the planet.

The problem

What sparked the idea wasn’t a sudden epiphany—it was lived frustration. When Lita was living in the UAE, she struggled to find safe, effective cleaning products. She has sensitive skin, and most leading brands either came heavily scented or lacked transparent ingredient lists.

"When I was living in the UAE, there were no options when it came to safe formula detergents," she said. Then came the bigger problem: plastic pollution. Walking into any major retailer, Lita noticed that cleaning product shelves were dominated by single-use plastic bottles. She realised that consumers couldn’t choose alternative packaging options.

"It's a matter of plastic pollution," she says. "You don’t have the option of using your own packaging and just buying the contents. When you step into the shelves for cleaning products, most are coming in single-use plastic. That’s when I decided I wanted to conduct business in the UAE, set up the company, and offer these solutions.”

From Amsterdam to action

Lita's time in Amsterdam during her master's programme solidified her vision. She even helped set up an angel fund for the University of Amsterdam and VU University, scouting and backing early-stage companies emerging from academia.

"Amsterdam is a leading capital when it comes to sustainability," she said. "That was my first real contact with understanding sustainability itself. It was a lot of fun, but also eye-opening."

Armed with that knowledge and fresh credentials, Lita returned to the UAE determined to build something different. However, perfecting her product proved far more challenging than expected.

The perfect formula

Creating a safe, effective laundry detergent wasn’t straightforward. Lita and her team spent 18 months developing a formula that could remove stains whilst remaining skin-safe and biodegradable. They built it based on the Environmental Working Group (EWG) scale for ingredient safety—a rigorous international standard.

"The issue with most detergents is the formula itself, which usually uses very harsh chemicals," she explains. "For us, it was a journey to create the perfect formula for the product. It took almost one and a half years to perfect it because we had to understand how to combine ingredients to be efficient but at the same time safe."

The work didn’t end at launch. Baya started as a simple two-variant offering—scented and unscented formulas—but Lita personally reached out to early customers asking for feedback. Six months in, the response prompted her to reformulate the product completely.

"This is one of the best parts of being a small startup," she says. "We can always change in a fast way because we take feedback directly from people, from our customers, and we implement that change. Their opinion matters the most."

Retail expansion

Baya launched as an e-commerce business in January 2023. Within a year, Lita had secured partnerships with major UK retailers Waitrose and Sainsbury's. She then strategically expanded across UAE quick-commerce platforms—Insta Shop and Noon Minutes—recognising that local consumers wanted products delivered within 15 minutes to one hour.

Today, Baya is genuinely omnichannel. The brand sits on Spinneys, Waitrose, Instashop, Noon Minutes, Deliveroo, and Kibsons, alongside direct-to-consumer channels through its website. Baya is also the first UAE cleaning products brand to offer subscription-based purchasing.

"We offer better deals for subscription customers," Lita explains. "They know exactly when products are arriving. People in the region often use household helpers, so they can schedule their orders—for example, knowing they need detergent every four weeks. They subscribe, and we ship to their door. They can pause, swap products, or cancel whenever they want."

What’s next?

Beyond product expansion, Baya is eyeing regional growth. Saudi Arabia is next on the horizon. Moreover, what sets Baya apart isn't just its product line—it's Lita's commitment to building community. She's cultivated a network of affiliate partners, many of them stay-at-home mothers and online creators who champion the brand.

Baya hosts events for these affiliates, bringing in social media experts to share tips on engagement and content creation."We are not only a brand that sells products," Lita stresses. "We try to create a movement. We try to give back to the community because this is the most important thing for us."