That's fairly interesting that the fear developed over time. The conventional wisdom is that repeated exposure makes things familiar and in turn would lessen any fear you would have of the thing.
I wonder if "developed fear" would be worth studying.
As I mentioned in another comment, I find the lack of personal space to be the biggest anxiety provoking element of flying, which raises my baseline anxiety enough that I can become extremely anxious once you add the relatively small amount anxiety I experience from just flying. Under different circumstances, my anxiety is far lower and I don't cross the threshold into "anxious", for example, when I'm in business or first class, or I otherwise have plenty of room to myself.
I wonder how widespread an increase in flight anxiety is as airlines add seats to planes and increasingly fly planes at max capacity.
I wonder if "developed fear" would be worth studying.