If the thought of your next flight fills you with dread, these 12 fear of flying tips can help you take back control. Roughly one in four people experience some level of flight anxiety, and the good news is that this fear responds exceptionally well to practical, science-backed strategies. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques alone have a 90% success rate for specific phobias like fear of flying.

Whether your anxiety starts weeks before departure or kicks in at the gate, the tips below are organized so you can use them at every stage of your journey.

Before Your Flight: Preparation Tips

Tip 1: Learn how planes actually work. Fear thrives on the unknown. When you understand that turbulence is just irregular air movement — not a sign of danger — the sensation loses much of its power. Modern commercial aircraft are tested to withstand forces far beyond anything you will experience in flight.

Tip 2: Avoid doom-scrolling before your trip. Searching for plane crashes or reading anxiety forums in the days before your flight feeds your fear with exactly the wrong information. Instead, spend that time learning about aviation safety statistics. Your odds of being in a plane incident are roughly 1 in 11 million.

Tip 3: Practice breathing techniques before you need them. The 4-7-8 technique — inhale for 4 counts, hold for 7, exhale for 8 — is most effective when your body already knows the pattern. Practice it daily for a week before your flight so it becomes automatic.

For a complete pre-flight preparation guide, see how to prepare for a flight if you are scared of flying.

At the Airport: Managing Pre-Flight Anxiety

Tip 4: Arrive early but not too early. Rushing through security amplifies stress hormones that make anxiety worse. But arriving three hours early for a domestic flight gives you too much idle time to worry. Aim for a comfortable window that lets you move through the airport calmly.

Tip 5: Use grounding techniques while waiting at the gate. The 5-4-3-2-1 method works anywhere: identify five things you can see, four you can touch, three you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste. This anchors your attention in the present moment and interrupts anxious thought patterns.

Tip 6: Skip the airport bar. Alcohol might feel like it takes the edge off, but it actually increases anxiety as it wears off — often mid-flight. It also impairs your ability to use the cognitive techniques that genuinely help. Stay hydrated with water instead.

Need more airport-specific strategies? Check out our tips for airport navigation for anxious flyers.

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During the Flight: In-the-Moment Strategies

Tip 7: Choose your seat strategically. Seats over the wings experience the least movement during turbulence. Aisle seats give you a sense of space and control. If seeing outside helps you feel connected to reality, choose a window. If it triggers anxiety, choose the aisle.

Tip 8: Create an anxiety toolkit in your carry-on. Pack noise-canceling headphones, a favorite playlist or podcast, a stress ball, a printed card with your breathing technique steps, and a comfort item that grounds you. Having these ready means you do not have to think when anxiety strikes.

Tip 9: Reframe turbulence as normal. When bumps happen, mentally narrate what is occurring: 'The plane is passing through a pocket of uneven air. This is like a car driving over a bumpy road. The pilots expected this and the plane is designed for it.' This cognitive reframing technique directly counters catastrophic thinking.

Tip 10: Engage your hands and mind. Anxiety lives in the future — 'what if something goes wrong.' Pull yourself into the present with activities that require focus: a crossword puzzle, a detailed coloring book, writing in a journal, or even counting backward from 300 by sevens.

Building Long-Term Confidence

Tip 11: Fly more often, not less. Avoidance is the fuel that keeps fear of flying alive. Each flight you take — even if you feel anxious — teaches your brain that the feared outcome does not happen. This is the core principle of exposure therapy, one of the most effective treatments for phobias.

Tip 12: Consider a structured program. While individual tips help in the moment, lasting change comes from a systematic approach that addresses the root patterns driving your anxiety. CBT-based programs combine cognitive techniques, aviation education, and gradual exposure into a framework that builds durable confidence over weeks, not just single flights.

Learn how flight anxiety responds to structured CBT programs and what the research shows about long-term outcomes.

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