The Prevalence of Flight Anxiety in Norwegian Airline Passengers

Abstract

A study of 315 passengers from eight randomly selected domestic flights in Norway was performed to investigate the prevalence of flight anxiety. There were 31% females and 69% males (mean age 34 and 38 yrs. respectively) with a response rate of 85%. The results showed that the females were most affected: 55% were at least sometimes afraid and 21% always afraid as compared to 45% and 8% in the males. For both sexes, 2% were found to be flight phobics. There was no difference in flight anxiety between the sexes for those with more than 10 flights during the last two years. The flight anxiety had lasted for at leat 10 years for 74% of those affected. “Turbulence” was the item causing most discomfort, followed by “the landing phase” and “ascending”. A comparison was made with a group matched according to age and number of flights (> 10 during the previous two years) where the questionnaires were given at home. The males but not the females, reported significantly more anxiety when responding during flights that at home.