ABSTRACT
Fear of flying among potential passengers is rather common (Agras, Sylvester, and Oliveau, 1969; Dean and Whitaker, 1982; Eke berg, Seeberg and Ellertsen, 1989; Nordlund, 1983; van Gerwen and Diekstra, 2000). Events such as the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and Pentagon by hijacking might even lead to higher numbers of people with flight anxiety. Fear of flying, whether experienced to a mild, moderate or high degree, can affect a person's life in various areas. It can interfere with professional, social and family activities (van Gerwen and Diekstra, 2000). As flying has become an integral part of life in industrialised countries, treatment programmes have been developed to help people with flight anxiety. A review study showed that there are about 50 treatment facilities in the Western world which offer treatment programmes for fear of flying (van Gerwen and Diekstra, 2000; van Gerwen et al., in preparation). These treatment programmes have been proved to reduce fear of flying effectively (Greco, 1989; Howard, Murphy and Clarke, 1983; Roberts, 1989; van Gerwen, Spinhoven, Diekstra and Van Dyck, 2002; Walder et al., 1987). However, little is known about which specific method or elements of treatment programmes works best (van Gerwen and Diekstra, 2000). In order to treat fear of flying most efficiently, it is important to find out what the risk factors for flight anxiety are. Consequently, treatment programmes could pay attention to these risk factors.
