What Causes Fear of Flying? Understanding the Psychology

As we approach summer, many people will be excited about making travel plans, or looking forward to a holiday abroad that they’ve had booked for a few months already. However, the enjoyable anticipation of an overseas trip, or even routine business travel, can be marred by a fear of flying. 

It is estimated that around one in ten people feel intensely anxious about flying, and this is known as aviophobia. It is a complex phobia that is linked to other psychological disorders, so the causes and therefore the best treatment will be different for everyone. Here’s a closer look at what flight phobia is, and what keeps it going.

Aviophobia or fear of flying?

There are people who can fly, but experience intense discomfort while on board the plane. Often they resort to medication or alcohol to manage their anxiety while onboard, but may tolerate this for the sake of holidays with family or business trips. There are others who will only fly when there is compelling reason to, or serious consequences if they don’t.

For people with full-blown aviophobia, even the thought of flying or the sight of an aircraft is terrifying, and they find it impossible to board a plane. Understanding how the condition affects you can help you describe it with more clarity, and therefore will guide you towards the most effective treatment. 

Common anxieties associated with fear of flying

Agrophobia or claustrophobia

In some cases, the fear is not so much of flying itself, as the thought of being in a confined space for several hours with no means of escape. In the case of people with claustrophobia, the narrow plane cabin may trigger irrational fears such as running out of oxygen. 

Agrophobia is also triggered by the idea of being trapped in a space that is difficult to escape from, but this is driven by a fear of crowds and what might happen if they had a panic attack, or lost control of themselves in some way. 

These fears may be related to social anxiety, as the thought of being surrounded by strangers and not being able to move around inconspicuously for hours at a time can cause intense worry and discomfort. 

Loss of control

Flying can be a deeply unsettling experience for individuals who prefer a strong sense of control over their environment. Trusting the safe navigation of the aircraft to others, no matter how professional, can be difficult or even impossible for some people. 

Once on board, you are a passenger in the hands of others for the entire duration of the flight, with no option to stop or even to observe what the air crew are doing. 

Fear of a fatal crash

Statistically speaking, flying on a commercial airplane is very safe: the BBC reports that in 2022, there were just 0.001 passenger deaths per 100,000,000 miles onboard airlines. Travelling by car is much more likely to result in a fatal crash. 

However, of course plane accidents do occasionally happen, and the fear of this can be blown out of all proportion in the mind of a flight phobic. 

Sometimes the fear might have been triggered by a previous negative experience on a flight, such as bout of air turbulence, unexplained sounds or sudden changes in air pressure. It can also be triggered by watching media coverage of an air disaster, or even watching a film or TV show that features a plane crash.

How can fear of flying be overcome?

As we have seen, the exact causes of the fear of flying will be different for everyone, so the first step is to think about what’s at the root of your fear or phobia. It may be a combination of some or even all of the above factors. The next step is to develop a strategy for challenging the unhelpful and inaccurate beliefs that keep these fears going. 

To do this, you may wish to explore self-help techniques such as mindfulness or meditation. 

If your fear of flying is impacting your quality of life and you are struggling to overcome it alone, you may be interested in hypnotherapy at our Wimbledon practice. This will explore the subconscious drivers of your flight anxiety and related fears, and the therapist will guide you towards more strategies for managing them.