UK guidance is straightforward, and it has two steps in order. First, a chest X-ray must confirm the lung has fully re-inflated — until it has, you should not fly at all. Then you wait a further 7 days from the date of that X-ray before flying. The week is a safety margin against the collapse coming back — not the air expanding at altitude — which is why the clock starts from the X-ray that shows full re-inflation, not from the original collapse. Ground travel by car, train or ferry does not carry the same concern. Dr Okiror is a consultant thoracic surgeon at London Bridge Hospital and The Lister Hospital Chelsea. Collapsed lung treatment page →
Last reviewed: July 2026 · Dr Lawrence Okiror FRCS(CTh) FRCSEd(CTh) · GMC 6150382
Wait until a chest X-ray confirms the lung has fully re-inflated, then a further 7 days before flying. Do not fly at all while any collapse remains on the X-ray. This is the British Thoracic Society position and it has not changed
The week is a margin to check the collapse does not return, because a recurrence in the air is dangerous and hard to treat. It is not about the air in the chest expanding at cabin altitude
Car, train and ferry — including the Channel Tunnel — do not involve the pressure change that makes flying a concern, and are generally fine before the flying date
A pneumothorax — the medical term for a collapsed lung — happens when air escapes into the space around the lung and stops it expanding fully. The concern with flying is that aircraft cabins are pressurised to the equivalent of a modest altitude, and any air trapped in the chest expands a little as the pressure falls.
Because of this, the long-standing UK advice is that you should not fly while a collapse is still visible on your chest X-ray. Once an X-ray confirms the lung has fully re-inflated, the guidance is to wait a further seven days before flying.
One point is worth being clear about, because it is the part most people get wrong: the seven days is counted from the date of the X-ray that shows full re-inflation — not from the day the lung first collapsed. If your collapse was still present a few days ago and today’s X-ray is the first to show it has cleared, your seven days start today.
You should not fly at all until an X-ray confirms the lung has fully re-inflated. There is no waiting period that makes flying with an unresolved collapse safe — the collapse itself needs to clear first.
It is natural to assume the waiting period is about the air in your chest expanding at altitude. In fact, once the X-ray confirms the lung has fully re-inflated, there is no significant trapped air left to expand.
The seven days does a different job. A collapse that has just cleared can occasionally recur in the days that follow. The waiting period is a safety margin, so that if the lung is going to collapse again, it is more likely to happen while you are on the ground and near help — not at 38,000 feet, where a recurrence is both dangerous and very hard to treat, and where a diversion has serious consequences for everyone on board.
Understanding this makes the rule easier to accept. The week is not bureaucratic caution — it is buying time to be confident the collapse has settled for good.
A collapsed lung caused by an injury — a fall, a road accident, or rib fractures — is called a traumatic pneumothorax. It follows the same flying rule as any other: full re-inflation confirmed on a chest X-ray, then a further seven days.
You may come across suggestions online that injured patients can fly sooner. Some research studies have flown selected patients earlier without problems — but these were mostly young people recovering from serious injuries, with medical support to hand. The specialists who write the UK guidance looked at exactly that evidence and decided not to shorten the standard advice, because the studies were small and the circumstances were not those of an ordinary passenger on a commercial flight.
If travel genuinely cannot wait, an earlier flight is a decision to make individually with a specialist who has personally reviewed your imaging — not something to judge from the type of collapse alone. Rib fractures also deserve their own thought: they can make a flight uncomfortable, and adequate pain relief and easy movement on board matter regardless of the lung.
If you are abroad and keen to get home before the flying date, a car, train or ferry avoids the pressure change altogether and lets you keep your plans. The Channel Tunnel counts as ground travel.
Flying within the guideline window, or against medical advice, can give an insurer grounds to decline a claim arising from the flight. Even if you feel well, this is a real risk to weigh.
If a flight has to divert for a medical emergency, the cost runs into tens of thousands of pounds. Without cover, that cost can land on the passenger.
If you are thinking about flying before the guideline date, the single most useful thing you can do is ask your insurer to confirm your cover in writing before you travel. Their answer is often the deciding factor — and it is a far better way to find out than at 38,000 feet.
For most people, a single collapsed lung is a one-off, and the flying question is simply a matter of waiting the right length of time. But if you have collapsed the same lung more than once and you fly regularly, the calculation changes.
Every collapse means a period when you cannot fly, and every flight carries the small risk of another collapse in the air. For a frequent flyer, that recurring disruption — and risk — can tip the balance towards a keyhole operation that greatly reduces the chance of the lung collapsing again. Someone who rarely travels might reasonably wait and see; someone whose work or life depends on flying may be better served by dealing with it definitively.
This is a conversation worth having with a thoracic surgeon rather than managing one episode at a time. The collapsed lung treatment page explains when surgery is recommended and what it involves.
If you have been advised to wait and see after a repeat collapse and you fly often, a specialist review can clarify whether surgery is the better path for you.
Request a second opinion →The advice on this page follows the British Thoracic Society Clinical Statement on air travel for passengers with respiratory disease (Coker RK and colleagues, Thorax, 2022), which sets out the resolution-plus-seven-days position and the reasoning behind it. The British Thoracic Society Guideline for pleural disease (Roberts ME and colleagues, Thorax, 2023) reaffirmed the same position for a collapsed lung that has cleared.
Research studies flying selected injured patients earlier — for example work by Zonies and colleagues (2018) and a 2024 review by Kashtan and colleagues — are discussed above; the British Thoracic Society considered this kind of evidence and chose to keep the conservative standard advice, which is why this page does the same.
This page is general information, not a substitute for advice about your own situation. Guidance changes over time; if you are planning to fly, confirm the current position with a clinician who has seen your imaging. If you develop new breathlessness or chest pain, seek urgent medical assessment rather than travelling.
Common questions from patients and GPs about air travel after a pneumothorax. For treatment of the collapse itself, and when surgery is recommended, see the collapsed lung treatment page →
Book a Consultation →Or call Jo Mitchelson:
020 7952 2882
Appointments within 2–3 days. Self-referrals welcome. Consultations at London Bridge Hospital and Lister Hospital Chelsea.
Jo Mitchelson, PA · 020 7952 2882 · pa@lungsurgeon.co.uk
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Diagnosis and keyhole surgery for pneumothorax, and when an operation is recommended to prevent recurrence
Bullectomy & Giant BullaKeyhole surgery for a pneumothorax associated with a giant bulla or recurrent bullous-disease collapse
Pleural Surgery in 2026 — Clinical ReferenceDetailed reference on spontaneous pneumothorax (BTS 2023), empyema and pleural malignancy. For GPs and specialists