What is fear of flying and how common is it?

Fear of flying (aerophobia) affects approximately 25-30% of the population to some degree. About 6.5% experience clinical aerophobia that significantly limits their lives. It is one of the most treatable anxiety conditions, with 90%+ success rates using evidence-based approaches.

Can fear of flying be cured?

Yes. Fear of flying responds very well to modern therapy approaches including EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, and Polyvagal-informed therapy. Most people see significant improvement within 6-12 sessions. Over 16,000 people have overcome their fear with Alex Gervash methods.

Is turbulence dangerous?

Turbulence has never caused a modern commercial aircraft to crash. Aircraft are engineered to withstand forces far beyond anything encountered in normal or even severe turbulence. It is uncomfortable, but not dangerous for the plane.

What is the SkyGuru app?

SkyGuru is a real-time flight companion app with 200,000+ users that explains what is happening during a flight in plain language. It also offers 50+ anxiety exercises developed by pilot-therapist Alex Gervash. Free for iOS.

How does a pilot become a fear of flying therapist?

Alex Gervash spent 31 years as a commercial pilot and simultaneously earned a psychology degree and trained in EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, and ACT. This dual expertise means he can explain exactly what happens in the cockpit while also working with the nervous system.

Privacy Policy | phobia.aero

Last updated: October 2026

1. Introduction

phobia.aero ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you visit our website and use our services.

2. Information We Collect

We may collect information about you in a variety of ways:

Personal Data: Name, email address, phone number, and other contact details you provide when filling out forms or registering for our services.
Health Information: Information about your fear of flying, anxiety levels, and related psychological information you share with us for treatment purposes.
Usage Data: Information about how you use our website, including pages visited, time spent, and navigation patterns.
Payment Information: Payment card details are processed securely through our payment provider (Stripe) and are not stored on our servers.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect to:

Provide and personalize our services
Process your payments and transactions
Send you relevant information about our services
Respond to your inquiries and provide customer support
Improve our website and services
Comply with legal obligations

4. Data Protection

We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. All data transmission is encrypted using SSL technology.

5. Your Rights

Under GDPR and other applicable laws, you have the right to:

Access your personal data
Correct inaccurate data
Request deletion of your data
Object to processing of your data
Data portability
Withdraw consent at any time

6. SkyBriefing websites and iOS app

SkyBriefing is our turbulence forecast service for airline passengers. This section describes the data handled by the SkyBriefing websites (skybriefing.org and skybriefing.ru) and by the SkyBriefing app for iPhone. It applies together with the rest of this Privacy Policy.

What we collect

Account data: your email address and, if you sign in through a sign-in service such as Google or Apple, the name and email address that service shares with us. The route forecast and the turbulence map work without an account.
Flight and route data: the airports, flight number, date and time you enter, and the forecasts and briefings prepared for you.
Purchase data: the product you bought (a single forecast or a subscription), the date, the amount and the payment status. Payments are processed by Apple in the iOS app and by Stripe or CloudPayments on the websites. We do not receive or store your full card details.
Usage data: actions inside the service, such as screens opened and buttons used, linked to a random session identifier and, when you are signed in, to your account. The websites also use Microsoft Clarity and hosting analytics. The iOS app does not include them.
Location: if you allow it, your device location is used to show your position on the turbulence map during a flight. It is processed on your device and is not sent to our servers.
Email messages: if you request a forecast by email or subscribe to updates, we use your email address to send them. You can unsubscribe with the link in the email or by writing to us.

Service providers

The following providers help us run SkyBriefing and receive the data needed for their task:

Supabase and Lovable: hosting, database and sign-in.
Timeweb: hosting of skybriefing.ru.
Apple, Stripe and CloudPayments: payment processing.
Postmark: delivery of emails.
FlightAware: flight route lookup. We send flight details such as the flight number.
AI and voice providers (the Lovable AI gateway and HeyGen): preparation of the text and voice briefing. They receive route and forecast data without your name or email address.
Esri and OpenStreetMap: map images. As with any web request, they receive your IP address.

The SkyBriefing iOS app contains no advertising tools and does not track you across apps and websites owned by other companies.

We also run SkyGuru. When you follow a link from SkyBriefing to SkyGuru and later buy a SkyGuru subscription, we record that the purchase came from SkyBriefing, using the amount and a hashed form of your email address.

Data retention and account deletion

We keep your account, forecast and purchase data for as long as your account exists. You can ask us to delete your SkyBriefing account and the data linked to it at any time: write to Alex@phobia.aero from the email address of your account. We delete the account and its data within one month. Records that the law requires us to keep, such as payment records, are kept for the period the law requires.

A subscription bought through Apple is managed in your App Store account settings. Deleting your SkyBriefing account does not cancel it, so please cancel the subscription there first.

7. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your rights, please contact us at:

Email: Alex@phobia.aero
Phone: +1 (585) 438-0093