What is the fear of flying called?

Aerophobia; Cleveland Clinic gives aviophobia as another name for it. It is one of the specific phobias, and it is often not a fear of crashing at all but a fear of the anxiety itself, with the anticipation as troubling as the flight.

Is a fear of flying really a fear of crashing?

Often not. Cleveland Clinic says most people with aerophobia are not actually afraid of the plane crashing; what they fear is the overwhelming anxiety of being on the plane, and thinking about flying is often as troubling as the flight itself. Other phobias can make it worse: acrophobia, agoraphobia, anthropophobia, claustrophobia, mysophobia. The self-check lists which statements counted, so you can see which part is doing the work.

What helps with the symptoms?

Learn what turbulence is: bumpy air, like potholes on a road. It is uncomfortable and can hurt anyone not wearing a seat belt, but aircraft are designed and certified to handle far more than it, and crews route around the worst of it. Pick a seat over the wing, near the aircraft's center of gravity, where the bumps are smallest, and keep your seat belt loosely fastened for the whole flight so turbulence stays a nuisance rather than a threat. Slow breathing practised in the week before the trip is the third free step. Beyond that, graded exposure works best for this fear: the how-to article on this site walks through a 10-rung, 4-week ladder. Panic attacks, or a fear that is costing you trips or work, are reasons to see a doctor or a CBT therapist.

Fear of flying symptoms: what aerophobia looks like before and during a flight

Fear of flying affects more than 25 million adults in the US and is most common between the ages of 17 and 34 (Cleveland Clinic). The symptoms come in two kinds: what you do to avoid flying, such as missing a family vacation, refusing work travel or insisting on a long drive, and what a panic attack before or during a flight feels like: chills, dizziness, sweating, a pounding heart, nausea, shortness of breath, trembling. This page lists them as Cleveland Clinic gives them, shows which of the 10 statements in the free self-check asks about each, and sets out the 4 things a clinician looks for before calling it aerophobia.

Open the fear of flying test

What are the symptoms of a fear of flying?

Cleveland Clinic lists the symptoms below (Cleveland Clinic, Aerophobia (fear of flying), read 2026-09-22). The first four are things people do; the rest are what a panic attack before or during a flight can feel like. The right-hand columns show which statement in the fear of flying test asks about the same thing, in plain words and in a concrete moment.

Table 1: aerophobia symptoms (Cleveland Clinic) and the self-check statement that covers each one
Symptom	Statement in the self-check	Kind
Avoiding flying at all costs: missing family vacations or refusing to travel for work	You miss trips, weddings, or work events because they mean flying.	What it costs you
Insisting on other modes of transportation, such as cars, buses or trains, even when they are less convenient	You choose a long drive or a train over a flight, even when it costs you more time.	Avoiding the situation
Avoiding movies, books or news stories that relate to air travel	Not asked directly
Becoming obsessed with learning about security measures at airports and on planes	Not asked directly
Panic attacks before or during a flight	Not asked directly
Chills	Not asked directly
Dizziness and lightheadedness	Not asked directly
Excessive sweating	Not asked directly
Heart palpitations	Not asked directly
Nausea, upset stomach or indigestion	Not asked directly
Shortness of breath	At take-off, your chest feels tight and you hold your breath or grip the armrest.	The fear itself
Trembling or shaking	Not asked directly

Only 3 of the 12 are asked about directly, and that is on purpose. The self-check is not a symptom checklist: it asks what happens in specific moments (the plane shakes, the engines spool up, you open the booking page) and what you do about it, because a racing heart on its own does not separate a nervous flyer from someone with a phobia. Panic attacks are on the plan's own list of reasons to see someone: "Panic attacks: sudden waves of intense fear with a racing heart, shortness of breath or dizziness that peak within minutes."

What sets it off

Cleveland Clinic names four specific triggers and adds that the anticipation of flying, or thinking about flying, is often as troubling as being on the flight itself. 3 of the 5 have a statement of their own in the self-check.

Table 2: what triggers a fear of flying (Cleveland Clinic) and the statement that asks about that moment
Trigger	Statement in the self-check	Kind
Turbulence (bumps during the flight)	When the plane shakes in turbulence, you feel sure something is going wrong.	The fear itself
Take-off and landing	At take-off, your chest feels tight and you hold your breath or grip the armrest.	The fear itself
The anticipation of flying, or thinking about flying	Booking a flight, or even browsing for one, sets off a wave of unease.	The fear itself
News stories about terrorism, crashes or violence on airplanes	Not asked directly
Thoughts about fire or illness spreading through the plane	Not asked directly

Is it really a fear of crashing?

Often not. Cleveland Clinic says most people with aerophobia are not actually afraid of the plane crashing; what they fear is the overwhelming anxiety that comes with being on the plane. The self-check keeps the two apart: one statement is about being sure something is wrong in turbulence, another about watching the crew's faces; the first is about the crash, the second about the alarm. Cleveland Clinic also lists other phobias that can make a fear of flying worse; 2 of them have a self-check on this site.

Table 3: phobias that can make a fear of flying worse (Cleveland Clinic) and whether this site has a self-check for them
Phobia	What it is	Self-check on this site
Acrophobia	fear of heights	Fear of heights test
Agoraphobia	fear of leaving the house or not being able to escape from a place or get help if something goes wrong	No
Anthropophobia	fear of people	No
Claustrophobia	fear of crowded, confined spaces	Claustrophobia test
Mysophobia	germaphobia, or fear of germs	No

If the worst part of a flight for you is the door closing rather than the take-off, the fear of flying due to claustrophobia guide puts the two self-checks and their ladders side by side. If it is the view from the window, the fear of heights symptoms guide does the same for heights.

When does a fear of flying count as a phobia?

Cleveland Clinic puts the range from mild, where you fly if you have to but it makes you anxious, to severe, where you have refused to fly for more than 5 years, and lists 4 things a healthcare provider looks for before diagnosing a specific phobic disorder such as aerophobia. The table shows which statement group in the self-check covers each one.

Table 4: what a clinician looks for (Cleveland Clinic) and the self-check statements that ask about it
What a clinician looks for	Statement group	Statements	Example
Develop symptoms at the thought of the fearful object or situation, such as airplanes or air travel	The fear itself	6	When the plane shakes in turbulence, you feel sure something is going wrong.
Experience your fear for six months or longer	Not asked	0	Not asked
Go out of your way to avoid the object or situation you fear	Avoiding the situation	2	You choose a long drive or a train over a flight, even when it costs you more time.
Have difficulty functioning at home, work or in social situations due to your fear	What it costs you	2	You miss trips, weddings, or work events because they mean flying.

Duration is the one the self-check cannot ask about, which is one reason it is a self-check and not a diagnosis. The other three carry different weight: one answer to any of the 2 avoidance statements or the 2 cost statements can set the level on its own, which none of the 6 about the fear itself can do, as the next section shows. The do I have a phobia guide applies the same four signs to all three fears on this site.

How the self-check reads your answers

10 statements in three groups, 4 answers each (never or almost never, sometimes, often, almost always), one of three levels, no score. Answers that average out at "sometimes" or more count as moderate; at "often" or more, marked. Answering "often" or "almost always" to a statement about avoiding flying counts as at least moderate, whatever the average. Answering "often" or "almost always" to a statement about the fear costing you something counts as marked, whatever the average.

Table 5: the three kinds of statement in the fear of flying self-check
Kind	Statements	What it means	Examples from the test
The fear itself	6	Dread, panic or physical reactions in the situation or at the thought of it	When the plane shakes in turbulence, you feel sure something is going wrong. / At take-off, your chest feels tight and you hold your breath or grip the armrest.
Avoiding the situation	2	Going out of your way not to face the situation	You choose a long drive or a train over a flight, even when it costs you more time. / You put off booking a flight, or cancel one, as the trip gets close.
What it costs you	2	The fear costing you plans, work, money, care or time with people	You miss trips, weddings, or work events because they mean flying. / Your fear of flying costs you money: refunds, longer routes, or missed deals.

One "often" to a cost statement (a missed wedding, money lost on refunds or longer routes) makes the result marked whatever the other nine say, because that is the sign that separates a phobia from a dislike of turbulence. The fear of flying statistics guide runs example answer patterns through the same code and shows why published prevalence figures range so widely.

What helps

The three free steps on every result page, in the test's own words:

Learn what turbulence is: bumpy air, like potholes on a road. It is uncomfortable and can hurt anyone not wearing a seat belt, but aircraft are designed and certified to handle far more than it, and crews route around the worst of it.
Pick a seat over the wing, near the aircraft's center of gravity, where the bumps are smallest, and keep your seat belt loosely fastened for the whole flight so turbulence stays a nuisance rather than a threat.
Practice slow breathing, four seconds in and six seconds out, for two minutes a day in the week before the trip, so it runs on its own when the engines spool up at take-off.

Beyond that, this fear responds well to graded exposure: a 10-rung ladder from photos of cabins to a full flight, climbed one rung at a time. The how to overcome a fear of flying article lays the whole 4-week plan out. Panic attacks, or a fear that is already costing you trips or work, are reasons to see a doctor or a CBT therapist rather than to go it alone.

Sources

The prevalence figures on this page are quoted from the pages below, each opened and checked on the date shown. Everything about the self-check (statements, levels, rules, ladder, weeks) comes from the same code that runs the test and the Pro plan.

Cleveland Clinic: Aerophobia (fear of flying) (opens in a new tab), read 2026-09-22.

A self-check for reflection, not a diagnosis; if fear is affecting your life, talk to a doctor or a therapist.

Frequently asked questions

What are the symptoms of a fear of flying?: Cleveland Clinic describes two kinds. Avoidance: not flying at all costs, missing vacations or refusing work travel, insisting on cars, buses or trains even when they are less convenient, avoiding films, books and news about air travel, or becoming obsessed with airport security. And panic attacks before or during a flight, with chills, dizziness and lightheadedness, excessive sweating, heart palpitations, nausea or an upset stomach, shortness of breath, and trembling or shaking (Cleveland Clinic, Aerophobia (fear of flying), read 2026-09-22).
What is the fear of flying called?: Aerophobia; Cleveland Clinic gives aviophobia as another name for it. It is one of the specific phobias, and it is often not a fear of crashing at all but a fear of the anxiety itself, with the anticipation as troubling as the flight.
Is a fear of flying really a fear of crashing?: Often not. Cleveland Clinic says most people with aerophobia are not actually afraid of the plane crashing; what they fear is the overwhelming anxiety of being on the plane, and thinking about flying is often as troubling as the flight itself. Other phobias can make it worse: acrophobia, agoraphobia, anthropophobia, claustrophobia, mysophobia. The self-check lists which statements counted, so you can see which part is doing the work.
When does a fear of flying count as a phobia?: A clinician looks for 4 things: symptoms at the thought of flying, the fear lasting six months or longer, going out of your way to avoid flying, and difficulty functioning at home, work or socially because of it (Cleveland Clinic, Aerophobia (fear of flying), read 2026-09-22). Cleveland Clinic puts the range from mild, where you fly if you have to but it makes you anxious, to severe, where you have refused to fly for more than 5 years. The self-check asks about 3 of the 4, and not about duration.
How does the fear of flying self-check read the symptoms?: It does not ask you to tick symptoms. It asks 10 statements about moments (turbulence, take-off, booking, the crew's faces) and about what you do and what it costs, with 4 answers each, and gives one of three levels: Mild, Moderate or Marked. Answers that average out at "sometimes" or more count as moderate; at "often" or more, marked. Answering "often" or "almost always" to a statement about avoiding flying counts as at least moderate, whatever the average. Answering "often" or "almost always" to a statement about the fear costing you something counts as marked, whatever the average. It is not a diagnosis.
What helps with the symptoms?: Learn what turbulence is: bumpy air, like potholes on a road. It is uncomfortable and can hurt anyone not wearing a seat belt, but aircraft are designed and certified to handle far more than it, and crews route around the worst of it. Pick a seat over the wing, near the aircraft's center of gravity, where the bumps are smallest, and keep your seat belt loosely fastened for the whole flight so turbulence stays a nuisance rather than a threat. Slow breathing practised in the week before the trip is the third free step. Beyond that, graded exposure works best for this fear: the how-to article on this site walks through a 10-rung, 4-week ladder. Panic attacks, or a fear that is costing you trips or work, are reasons to see a doctor or a CBT therapist.

Fear of flying statistics: how common is aerophobia?
More than 25 million US adults, estimates from 2.5% to 40%: the published figures on fear of flying with their sources, what it is called, and how the self-check works.
Do I have a phobia? How to tell a fear from a phobia, and which test to take
9.1% of US adults had a specific phobia in the past year (NIMH). The four signs that separate a fear from a phobia, and which free self-check to take.
Fear of flying due to claustrophobia: which test to take and one ladder for both
Claustrophobia (12.5% of people) is one of the phobias Cleveland Clinic says can worsen a fear of flying. Which test to take, and one ladder for both.
Fear of heights symptoms: what it is called and when it counts
Acrophobia symptoms as clinicians list them, how common it is (3-6% of people), when a fear of heights counts as a phobia, and how the self-check reads your answers.

Last updated 2026-09-22. A self-check for reflection, not a diagnosis; prevalence figures are quoted from their sources with the date read. If fear is affecting your life, talk to a doctor or a therapist.