Meet the team

Steve Allright - Captain and Director

Steve has been running British Airways fear of flying courses for 30 years and is now a Director of Flying with Confidence. He regularly runs the Heathrow course. Steve has been a British Airways Training Captain on the 757/767, 747 and 787.

Peter Hughes - Director

Peter founded these courses in 1986 and since then the courses have helped over 50,000 people overcome their fear of flying. Peter retired from British Airways as a 747 Training Captain in 2003, but still oversees all of our courses as a Director.

Donna Allright - Management

Donna is a qualified Counsellor with over 15 years experience working in secondary schools and on our courses. She regularly attends the Heathrow course in both administration and psychological support roles.

Patricia Furness-Smith - Psychologist

Patricia has presented on the course for over 20 years and currently runs the Psychological session at Gatwick, Primary Plus at Heathrow, Premium and Private courses. She has over 30 years’ experience as a Lecturer and Examiner in a variety of Psychological courses and runs a Private Practice in the Chilterns. Patricia has written a number of Self-Help books including the BA Flying with Confidence book and CD

Dr Simon Petrie - Clinical Psychologist

Simon is a clinical psychologist with huge experience in many different fields. He joined the psychological team specifically to assist in presenting in Scotland where he lives, but also helps out on other courses we run

Kerri Newns - Psychotherapist

Simon Cowdell - Captain

Simon is a Captain on our largest aircraft, the A380. He has been helping on our courses for many years, and he is exceptionally tech minded to solve any presentation equipment challenges!

Gordon Black - Captain

Gordon is recently retired as a pilot but previously flew the 737, 757, 767, 777, 747 and Airbus 319/320, with over forty years flying experience. Most of that time he was a Training Captain, and has been helping on our courses pretty much from the outset in 1986.

Andy Shaw - Captain

Andy joined British Airways in 1990 and has been a Captain since 2000. He has totalled some 20,000 flying hours having flown the Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777, Airbus 319, 320, 321 and currently is on the latest Boeing aircraft, the 787 'Dreamliner'. Andy has been a member of the team for over 20 years and helps on all of our different courses.

Nigel Willing - Captain

Nigel is a Captain on the short haul Airbus and is often the operating Captain on our course experience flight. Nigel presents on all our courses.

Alistair Black - Senior First Officer

Alistair is a Senior First Officer on the 777 fleet with BA, having previously been a short haul Airbus Captain. Alistair followed his father, Gordon into flying, starting his training in 2002. He then followed his father into our team initially as a volunteer in 2003.

Stuart Beech - Senior First Officer

Stuart joined our team after a rather unexpected interview at The Theatre Royal, as he was set up and performed on Micheal McIntyre’s Big Show. Stu joined British Airways in 2008 flying the Airbus A320 and began flying the Airbus A380 almost 7 years ago. He is now a regular team member on ours courses.... You never know you might even get a song on the PA at the end of the flight!

Jai Dillon - Senior First Officer

Jai flies the Boeing 777 on long haul routes from Heathrow and Gatwick. He joined the Flying with Confidence team in 2015. He has over 10,000 flying hours and previously flew the Boeing 737, Airbus 319/320/321. Aside from flying duties Jai is Pilot Recruitment Lead on the British Airways Pilot Recruitment Team.

Bex Panther - Senior First Officer

Rebecca (Bex) joined British Airways as a pilot in 2016, and before that worked as an Aircraft Dispatcher with us, at Gatwick and Heathrow. She joined the Flying with Confidence team in 2019 and is the operating First Officer on most of our LHR courses. Bex is also a Pilot Selector on the BA Recruitment Team. She flies the Airbus 320 fleet based out of Heathrow.

Niven Phoenix - Senior First Officer

Niven has over 30 years of flying experience, he joined British Airways after a long career in the RAF flying the C130 and C17. During his time in the RAF he worked as a Trauma and Risk manager and also a human factors trainer, naturally when he joined British Airways this made him the perfect person to join our team. Niven currently flies the Boeing 787 out of London Heathrow, previously flying the 747.

Hannah Kerr - Senior First Officer

Chris Barnett - InFlight Manager

Chris started flying in 2004 with British Midland before coming to British Airways in 2012. He is an InFlight Manager onboard both short and long haul flights. Chris joined the flying with confidence team in 2018 and really enjoys participating on the course

Gregg Best - InFlight Manager

Gregg is a regular on our London courses, and is one of our In Flight Managers flying both short haul and long haul. He has been flying for over 30 years and has experienced 6 different airlines.

Eric Gee - InFlight Lead

Eric has been working as Cabin Crew for British Airways since 2005, and prior to that, he worked for 6 years for a charter airline at Newcastle airport. He is now based at Heathrow and is currently an Inflight Lead. He has been part of the Flying With Confidence Team since July 2016

Steve Hibberd - Customer Service Supervisor

Steve started working for BA on the ground at London Gatwick in 1997. After 3 various roles he got the opportunity to become cabin crew in 2008. Steve has been part of the Flying with Confidence team since 2013.

Steven Hurley - Cabin Crew

British Airways is Steven’s third airline and he has been flying a mixture of long and short haul for 18 years. Not content with flying full time as a job, Steven enjoys a hobby of flying to far flung places on his time off, climbing volcanoes in Hawaii, Sydney harbour bridge and sky diving in Arizona, all in the search of a good view! Steven had been on the flying with confidence team for four years now

Emma Betts - Cabin Crew

Emma is an In-Flight Manager with 20 years flying experience across two airlines. In her spare time she works in the NHS, she loves to run and coaches a female football team!

Stephanie Armstrong - Cabin Crew

Chloe Robinson - Cabin Crew

Bob Atkinson - Travel Industry Expert

Bob is a travel industry expert with over 40 years experience who has a long association with our course, often taking a leading role in course administration.

Holly Houston - Marketing Executive

Holly has been working on the Heathrow courses for over 15 years acting as Course Administrator on the day ensuring the smooth running of the course. She also takes a lead role in our social media marketing.

Jane Crouch - Customer Service

Jane has worked for British Airways for many years and on our courses for more than five years. She is our check in, ticketing and seating expert on the day!

Lars Houston - IT Specialist

Lars has been working on the Heathrow courses for the past 6 years. Additionally, since obtaining his Tourism & Marketing Degree, he has a broad range of experience in the digital marketing field and manages our paid media platforms

Angela Hyland - Cabin Crew Co-ordinator

Angela has been a regular team member on the Heathrow courses for a number of years. She was cabin crew on our short haul routes for over 20 years and has recently moved to a cabin crew coordinating role.

Jane O'Leary - Administration

Jane has recently left British Airways having joined as Cabin Crew in 1996. She has been helping on our courses for over 20 years and is responsible for all the paperwork on the day - a huge task!