Addressing the Mental Health Crisis in Aviation: Developing Fit for Flight
The aviation sector is facing a growing mental health crisis. High job demands, fatigue, stigma around disclosure, and limited access to sector-specific supports have fostered conditions that threaten both individual wellbeing and organizational safety. While the industry has made important strides in physical safety and human factors training, mental health and overall wellbeing and their direct impact on operational performance have remained under-addressed.
At Presage, we specialize in uncovering the human, organizational, and cultural factors behind critical decision-making in high stakes moments. Our proprietary methodology blends psychological insights, decades of operational expertise, and data-driven analyses to reveal the factors that shape pilots’ behaviour in the moment. Over the past several decades, we have seen firsthand that mental health is a key component of a pilot’s ability to maintain a high level of cognitive function, operational compliance , and most importantly, make high-stakes decisions under pressure. More recently, the discourse around mental health in the aviation world has been shifting to one overarching question: what can we do about it?
In response, Presage Group Inc. is developing Fit for Flight, an online platform designed to enable airlines to promote and support aviation employees’ mental health and wellbeing. The Fit for Flight app combines validated assessment tools with evidence-based resources and tailored feedback and recommendations to support aviation professionals in understanding, monitoring, and strengthening their mental health and overall wellbeing.
The development of Fit for Flight builds upon years of Presage’s applied research in psychological safety, resilience, and organizational wellbeing in high-performance environments. Using data collected through large-scale studies and ongoing partnerships with aviation organizations, Fit for Flight aims to translate complex mental health data into actionable insights that promote both individual and organizational readiness.
Our goal is to pave the way for airlines to normalize discussions around mental health in the aviation context, provide pilots and other employees in the sector with tools to track and manage their own wellbeing, and provide organizations with the data and tools they need to make informed, evidence-based decisions to best support their workforce for years to come.
Further updates on the development and deployment of Fit for Flight will be shared through Presage’s website and partner channels as the project progresses.