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Fed Up With Flying
The Travel Critic · May 31, 1999

After surviving an aborted takeoff five years ago on a Delta Air Lines flight from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Dianne Weissman is now partial to ground transportation.

How partial? Well, when the New York market researcher commutes from Rochester. N.Y., to New York City, she opts for a seven-hour train ride rather than a 45-minute flight.

"I just feel better on the ground," she says.

Weissman isn't alone. About one-third of us are afflicted with the fear of flying - also known as aerophobia - according to a survey commissioned by aircraft manufacturer Boeing. The misgivings are compounded whenever there's a near-accident or a disaster like today's American Airlines crash in Little Rock, Ark.

But now people like Weissman who are afraid to fly are being joined by the people who don't like to fly.

Sometimes they refuse to board any plane. Sometimes it's a particular airline. Lou Elliott, a culinary arts student in Norfolk, Va., won't fly on Delta, for example, after having a bad experience with cramped seats.

"I sat with my knees in the back of the seat in front of me and when the fellow in front put his seat back, my dinner tray was right in my stomach," she says.

People avoid flying for a variety of other reasons, including impolite service, long lines at the ticket counter, inedible food and memories of what airline travel used to be like before deregulation.

Their aversion to air travel is infectious. A poll commissioned by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of the lawmakers behind the Airline Passenger Fairness Act of 1999, found that 92 percent of travelers think airlines need to improve customer service.

"There are a lot of angry and frustrated people out there," says Richard Gritta, a professor of finance and transportation at the University of Portland in Oregon. "I think there are more people who refuse to fly today than ever, even though no one was killed in an aviation accident last year in the United States."

Anxiety expert Mary Guardino understands the fear and loathing of flying, and believes the two are similar. The executive director of a New York-based mental health advocacy group called Freedom from Fear ought to know. She spent 25 years in the clutches of aerophobia before seeking treatment for her condition.

"Planes are not nice places to be today," Guardino says, "and I don't blame people for refusing to fly."

Guardino says she reached that conclusion on a recent flight from Washington's National airport to Newark. The plane sat on the runway for two hours, and then the pilot came on the intercom and said it would be at least another 45 minutes.

"At that point," she recalls, "a woman sitting next to me freaked out. She said, 'You have to let me out!' The flight attendants told her they couldn't, but she yelled, 'I don't care, let me off!' Finally they returned to the gate."

Whether our motivation is dread or dislike, I think the fact that people are choosing to travel by car, train or bus is a sad sign of the times. Has air travel really degenerated to the point where anything else is preferable?

What I'm more worried about is that would-be passengers aren't bothering to travel at all. They're avoiding business trips and leisure travel because they're afraid they'll get wedged in a small seat, or fed a bad meal.

Maybe it's time for the government to step in and ensure a minimum level of service for air travel. Maybe our elected representatives should stop dillydallying around and just re-regulate the airline industry.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.