Feeling the fear and flying anyway: TOWIE star Bobby takes Easyjet’s Fearless Flyer Course

This was the case for Bobby Cole Norris, star of ITV2 BAFTA award-winning series The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE), who recently revealed that he has had a deep-seated phobia of flying ever since he was a child and with the TOWIE stars upcoming trip to Marbs one of the ‘must-do’ items on the Essex calendar, Bobby has spent the past weekend on easyJet’s Fearless Flyer course at Stansted airport to ensure that he can say ‘si’ to a stint on the Costa del Sol.

Explaining why overcoming his fear is so important to him, Bobby says: "The beach outfits are planned, sunglass collection ready to be showcased and the tan applied but having to fly has always put a dark cloud over the whole holiday! Sitting at the airport gate I have always been the one looking nervously out on the runway biting my nails. For me it’s the noises. I sit there listening to every bang and whirling, thinking it’s a signal that we are doomed to drop out of the sky any minute!"

EasyJet’s Fearless Flyer course consists of a three-hour ground course presented by top phobia expert Lawrence Leyton, star of Channel 4’s Fear of Flying programme, and a senior easyJet Captain. More than 1,000 flying phobics - ranging from those who experience mild nervousness to extreme phobics - have been helped as part of the course since its launch in late 2012. Mark Wein who runs easyJet’s Fearless Flyer course said:

"We’re looking forward to welcoming Bobby on the course and are confident we’ll be able to help him overcome his fear. "We have a phenomenal success rate with over 95% of participants becoming fearless flyers. We know from the many emails that we subsequently receive from our participants from around the world that it’s a life-changing experience for them. We believe that it will be the same for Bobby and that his trip to Marbella will be a fearless one."

Date Created: 28/04/2014