[Dottore]

My wife used to be afraid of flying.

Lufthansa runs this program regularly for people like this. It's four days of classroom work with pilots and psychologists etc. Very professional. They try to demystify the whole process of flying by explaining some theory of flight etc.

Then on the 5th day they take the group up in a 737 over Germany and fly at strange attitudes etc., explain all the unusual noises (eg. when flaps are extended or gear goes down etc) and so forth. They take off and land about 6 times, and explain the process while doing it.

This program has an enormous success rate. It costs about $750.- for the five days (hotels and meals extra) but if you have to fly, and have a fear of it, this is apparently the best way to deal with it.

My wife swears by this program. When I married her I had to drag her onto airplanes kicking and screaming. Now there's no issue whatsoever.