One year after a deadly collision in the sky over Washington, DC, which killed 67 peopleA new TPG/YouGov poll reveals that while most American air travelers think air travel is generally safe, a whopping 74% admit to being not very, somewhat, or very nervous when flying. Within that breakdown, 46% of travelers say they are somewhat or very nervous when flying.
This is the second year in a row that TPG has commissioned this survey. We began the survey in light of a series of incidents that brought airline safety into question, including that fatal mid-air collision last January, a Delta Air Lines regional flight that flipped upon landing in Toronto last February and a stopper in the door explosion on an Alaska Airlines flight the year before. Those and other recent incidents understandably have some travelers nervous.
We wanted to know if Americans still feel that flying is safe.
fear of flying
For the second year in a row, we asked respondents how safe they think it is to fly right now. Seventy-four percent of Americans think air travel right now is somewhat (36%) or very (37%) safe, while only 11% said flying was not safe at all or not very safe.
That’s a big improvement over last yearwhen only one in four (27%) respondents said travel is “very safe” and a whopping 28% said they didn’t think air travel was safe at all. Last year’s poll was conducted by The Harris Poll, a different pollster, for TPG.
We also asked how nervous, if at all, air travelers were when flying. Twenty-one percent said they don’t feel nervous at all when flying, but in other cases nerves abound. Twenty-seven percent said they were not very nervous, 30% said they were somewhat nervous, and 16% said they were very nervous.
Impact on travel
While fear of flying doesn’t tend to deter most people from traveling entirely, it does change behavior.
Thirty-eight percent of travelers with a fear of flying, whether mild or significant, said this fear has led them to change their travel plans in some way. About 9% of those travelers said they had delayed their plans, while another 9% said they canceled them. Another 20% of respondents have found alternative forms of transportation.
Among American adults who are afraid of flying, 45% use distractions such as music, movies, games and books to combat their fear of flying. Nine percent of them use prescription medications (such as Xanax), while another 10% take over-the-counter medications, 11% consume alcohol, and 12% meditate.
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We also asked respondents about the impact of recent airline safety incidents. Thirty-nine percent of travelers reported no change in their level of nervousness in light of recent airline safety incidents. Still, 46% said they were somewhat or much more nervous.
Still, that added nervousness didn’t have a major impact on planning; Only 3% of those who were aware of security incidents that occurred in recent years said they are canceling their travel plans and 5% said they are delaying them.
Another 13% said they are taking direct flights to have less time in the air, and 13% said they are choosing an alternative form of transportation.
In a nutshell
A large number of Americans are still nervous about flying, according to YouGov in a new survey commissioned by TPG. And although some time has passed since the air chaos of early 2025, 45% of travelers still say they are more nervous about flying after airline safety incidents in recent years.
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The Points Guy commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 2,210 American adults, of whom 1,952 are travelers. Fieldwork was conducted between February 17 and 19, 2026. The survey was conducted online and meets rigorous quality standards. It assembled a nonprobability sample and used quotas and demographic weights to better align the survey sample with the broader U.S. population.
