Nervous Flyer? Virgin Australia Announces Inflight Meditation

Nervous Flyer? Virgin Australia Announces Inflight Meditation

We all know people who truly get nervous about flying and for who the very thought of flying is a terrifying experience.  Some people are fearful of the act of flying itself, while others are nervous flyers because of the stress that is associated with traveling (i.e. getting the airport, hoping your bags make it, making your connection.  So that’s partly why Virgin Australia announced inflight meditation for its customers who experience nervous flying.

Some people might already take some actions to quell their nerves, including knowing some people who actually use alcohol as a way to calm themselves (not a good idea…sometimes overuse of alcohol and flying can lead to some bad things).

Well, Virgin Australia has announced that they want to work with nervous flyers to make their journey less nerve-wrecking.  The airline also had a flight completely devoted to meditation in order to highlight the importance it gives mindfulness in everyday lives and announce a new meditation program for nervous flyers.

The CEO of Virgin, Sir Richard Branson, described the purpose of the meditation flight introducing the new concept by saying, ““We want to encourage more passengers to use their time flying with Virgin Australia to exercise their mind through meditations in the Inflight Entertainment System, and what better way to make this known than by holding the world’s first dedicated meditation flight.”

The new program has not yet been detailed by Virgin Australia, but the press release says that it will allow passengers to let the airline know in advance that they are a nervous flyer.  The airline will use that information to communicate with the passenger leading up to the day of the flight, and then the airline will provide the customer with face-to-face interactions while onboard the flight.

The meditation flight that Virgin Australia hosted also introduced meditation programs on the inflight entertainment systems, made in partnership with Smiling Mind.  The in-flight system will have guided meditations that are meant to relieve passengers of travel-related anxiety.  The CEO of Smiling Mind, Dr. Addie Wooten, said, “As little as a couple of minutes of meditation can improve our overall sense of calm and wellbeing during a flight. And what better time than in air to meditate; we would love to see every passenger use air travel to give their mind time to thrive.”