Fear of air travel has soared to new heights among Generation Z following a string of safety failures and negative press coverage for the aviation industry, with research showing that just under half of Zoomers are worried about stepping foot on a Boeing 737 jet.
A survey from JW Surety Bonds conducted earlier this month polled 1,000 Americans (230 of them from Gen Z) about public perceptions of airline safety. According to the study’s findings, trust in the aviation sector is down across all generations, but Gen Z showed the greatest trepidation, with 49 percent reporting a newfound fear of flying.
As Valuetainment previously reported, the Boeing 737 MAX 9 jet has been at the center of public scrutiny and a federal investigation following a door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
In the weeks that followed, Boeing stock crumbled, the line of jets was grounded, and the blowback expanded to the broader aviation industry. A series of additional breakdowns and malfunctions—broken landing gear, cracked windows, mis-drilled holes, leaking fuel, and more—only exacerbated fears about the safety of passenger aircraft.
Even the Federal Aviation Administration, which was investigating the initial blowout, was caught up in the negative publicity when it was exposed for prioritizing applicants with “hearing/vision loss, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism.”
With each negative update, would-be passengers have become increasingly less inclined to take to the skies.
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But according to JW Surety Bonds, the fear among Zoomers is notably worse because of the generation’s already elevated anxiety levels.
“People trust their parents growing up, but they [Gen Z] reached an age where Covid happened, and there were all sorts of inconsistencies that made these kids wonder: ‘Are these societal institutions to be trusted?’” New York City therapist Lesley Koeppel told the New York Post. “[Gen Z were told] wear a mask, don’t wear a mask, get vaxxed, don’t get vaxxed, don’t touch a package that comes to the house, now you can touch the package. There was so much misinformation and inconsistency.”
“I really think that put that generation on shaky ground, when they were supposed to be able to be branching away from their parents and learning to trust these sources that could not be trusted,” she added. “When you don’t trust, you develop anxiety and can go backward.”
Related: Boeing Whistleblower John Barnett Found Dead from “Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound”
However, anxious members of Gen Z are far from the only ones fearful of midair disasters. The study also found that 40 percent of Baby Boomers, 39 percent of Millennials, and 38 percent of Gen X share those fears—an average of 4 in 10 Americans across all generations.
Concluding the report, JW Surety Bonds recommends that companies like Boeing “focus more on safety and…win back passenger trust with clear communication and action.”
But while the FAA investigation has brought a new level of scrutiny to the company, the mysterious death of a Boeing whistleblower has led many to believe that threats far greater than mechanical failures have yet to come to light. Watch The Unusual Suspects’ new minidocumentary on the whistleblower below:
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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