Is there a link between flying and atrial fibrillation?

I suffer from paroxsymal atrial fibrillation. I haven't flown since I have been diagnosed but now I am worried about it. I do not like flying and when I get in the plane my heart beats very rapidly from fear. Could this trigger a fibrillation? If so I will have to go abroad via train or boat. Has anyone had a fibrillation whilst flying?

Atrial fibrillation is more on cardiac electrical impulses than atmospheric pressure-induced, so high altitudes do not have that high of a correlation with the said disease. This disease is also called cardiac DYSRHYTHMIA, and I call it as such instead of ARRHYTHMIA because "A-" means "none", and atrial fibrillation definitely has a cardiac rhythm but only abnormal.

If the nature of your cardiovascular disease is altitude induced, such as Bends, then flying might be a problem. The complication of your disease, however, is more related and more likely to be triggered by anxiety-filled situations, which, in your case as you said, is flying or any other situations or events that trigger an anxiety attack. Anxiety attacks translate to high adrenaline production, sweating, and fast heartbeats as some of the symptoms. The increased heart rate could switch your cardiovascular physiology to the atrial fibrillation state, i.e. your abnormal cardiac rhythm--this is the exact nature of patients diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, with alternate switching between normal cardiac rhythm to an abnormal one.

If flying triggers an anxiety attack towards you, then there is a high chance that it would also trigger atrial fibrillation in your state. Remember that flying per se is not the problem but the event itself that give rise to a precursor of atrial fibrillation. If this is the case, you have some options to remedy this. I recommend you see a cardiologist and discuss your case and possible anxiolytic (meds directed toward anxiety attacks) medications, like Diazepam for example, that you can take if flying is absolutely necessary.

If I am not mistaken, AF is manageable is most cases. And since yours is paroxysmal in nature, there is something that can be done to manage it.

I hope this helps!