How long after scuba diving can you fly? 12, 18 or 24 hours

Wait at least 12 hours to fly after one dive with no required stops. After two or more dives in a day, or several days of diving, wait at least 18 hours.¹ After a dive with required decompression stops, wait at least 24 hours.²

These are the numbers from DAN, the Divers Alert Network. It’s the dive safety group that most dive shops follow. I’m a Rescue Diver and I travel full time, and my flight out is the first thing I check when I book dives.

Wait times at a glance

What you did	Wait before you fly
One dive, no required stops	12 hours
Two or more dives in one day	18 hours
Dives on more than one day	18 hours
A dive with required decompression stops	24 hours or more
An hour of pool training	No wait

A decompression stop is a pause on the way up that you must make, or you risk getting hurt. Your dive computer tells you when you need one. The short safety stop at 15 feet on a normal dive doesn’t count.

Pool training is too shallow to matter. DAN says an hour at 10 to 12 feet needs no wait.³

These are the shortest safe waits, not goals. A longer wait is safer.²

How to count the hours

Start the clock when you climb out after your last dive. Stop it when the plane takes off.

• Out at 4 p.m. after one dive: you can fly at 4 a.m.
• Out at 4 p.m. after a day of two dives: you can fly at 10 a.m. the next day.
• Out at 4 p.m. after a dive with required stops: you can fly at 4 p.m. the next day.

Why you have to wait

Air is mostly nitrogen. When you dive, you breathe air under pressure, and your body soaks up extra nitrogen. After the dive, it seeps back out over many hours.

A plane’s cabin has less pressure than the beach. It’s like being on a mountain 6,000 to 8,000 feet high.⁴ Less pressure can turn leftover nitrogen into bubbles in your body, like opening a can of soda. Those bubbles cause decompression sickness, also called the bends.

The 12 and 18 come from lab tests at Duke University. After one dive, no one got bent with 11 or more hours before the flight. After repeat dives, some people did with less than 17 hours. Experts added a margin and set the waits at 12 and 18.⁵

Those tests used people resting in a dry chamber. Real divers swim, work hard and get cold. That’s one more reason to wait longer than the least you can.⁵

Did you dive nitrox, which is air with extra oxygen? Use the same wait times.⁵ Nitrox lowers your risk, but it doesn’t shorten the wait. Here’s how nitrox diving works.

Driving up a mountain counts too

What matters is the drop in pressure, not the plane. DAN’s rules cover heights from 2,000 to 8,000 feet (610 to 2,438 meters).¹ So if a road climbs past about 2,000 feet, treat the drive like a flight.

This catches a lot of divers:

• Maui: The road up Haleakalā climbs past 10,000 feet.
• Costa Rica: San José sits at about 3,800 feet. The drive up from the Pacific coast counts.
• The last day: Volcano tours, cable cars and hilltop views get sold hard at the end of a trip.

If the drive to the airport climbs, your wait has to run out before you start driving, not before takeoff.

PADI, the biggest dive training group, says to wait 24 hours before you climb a mountain.⁴ The same goes for skydiving, paragliding, skiing and hot-air balloons.⁴ Want both on one trip? Go up the mountain first. Then dive.⁴

Diving after flying: no wait

You can dive the day you land. No dive group sets a wait after a flight.⁶ A flight doesn’t add nitrogen to your body, so there’s nothing to wait out.

The problem is how you feel. Long flights leave you tired and a little dried out, and both are bad for diving.⁶ So:

• Drink water on the plane, and go easy on alcohol.
• Get a good night’s sleep before your first dive.
• Make the first day easy. DAN says to start with fewer, shallower dives.⁶

If this is your first dive ever, read how to prepare for your first scuba dive. If you have a health problem, sort it out at home. Here’s whether you can scuba dive with asthma, for one.

What your dive computer’s no-fly time means

Most dive computers show a no-fly time when you surface. It counts down the hours until that computer thinks you can fly.

Each brand works it out its own way. A Suunto never shows less than 12 hours. It shows more if its math says you need more.⁷ So after a week of diving, your computer can show less than 18 hours. Wait the full 18 anyway.

Two rules keep it simple:

• Take the longer number. If the computer and the table disagree, wait for whichever ends last.
• Use the table if you switched computers. A rented or borrowed computer doesn’t know about your dives from earlier in the week.

Signs that mean call DAN, don’t board

Don’t fly if you notice any of these after diving:²

• Pain in a joint, like a shoulder, elbow or knee
• Numbness, tingling, or weak arms or legs
• An itchy rash, or blotchy, marbled skin
• Tiredness that feels wrong
• Dizziness, or the room spinning
• Trouble breathing, or pain in your chest
• Confusion, or trouble walking

Call DAN’s 24-hour emergency line: +1-919-684-9111. Any diver can call for advice, member or not.² A DAN medic will talk to you, or to a local doctor.⁸ Ask the dive shop to give you oxygen while you wait.²

Don’t fly home to “see a doctor there.” The low pressure on the plane can make bubbles grow. And for hours, you’re far from a chamber, the pressure room that treats the bends. DAN’s advice is clear: get checked instead of flying.¹

A chamber can cost thousands of dollars. Here’s how dive insurance pays for chamber treatment.

Plan your last day

The day you fly is not a dive day. Count back from your takeoff time, not forward from your last dive.

• Afternoon flight at 2 p.m.: After several days of diving, be out of the water by 8 p.m. the day before. You can still dive that day.
• Early flight at 7 a.m.: Be out by 1 p.m. the day before. That leaves you a morning of diving, at most.

So a week-long trip gives you five or six dive days, not seven. Keep that in mind when you work out how much scuba diving costs.

Tell the dive shop your flight time on the first day. A good shop will plan your week around it. One easy dive on your last day doesn’t drop you back to 12 hours. After several days of diving, it’s still 18.¹

Spend the free day snorkeling. It needs no wait, and here’s how snorkeling compares with scuba diving.

Frequently asked questions

Can you snorkel after flying, or right before a flight?+

Yes. Snorkeling needs no wait either way. You breathe normal air at the top of the water, so no extra nitrogen builds up in your body. That makes it a good way to spend the last day of a dive trip. Here's how snorkeling and scuba diving compare.

Do pool dives count before a flight?+

Not a normal pool lesson. DAN says an hour of pool training 10 to 12 feet deep is too shallow to need the wait (DAN). A try dive in the ocean is different. It counts like any other dive. Wait 12 hours after one dive, or 18 after two.

Why do some people say to wait 24 hours?+

Because the old rules said so. Before 2002, divers waited 24 hours after several days of diving, and 48 after a dive with required stops. In 2002, a DAN panel cut the first wait to 18 hours (DAN). Some divers still wait 24. A longer wait is always safer.

Can I go skydiving after scuba diving?+

Wait at least 24 hours. A skydiving plane climbs far higher than a jet's cabin, and it isn't sealed against the drop in pressure. PADI puts skydiving, paragliding and hot-air balloons on its 24-hour list (PADI). If you want to do both, jump first and dive after.

What happens if you fly too soon after diving?+

Your risk of the bends goes up. Low cabin pressure can turn leftover nitrogen into bubbles in your body. Signs can start on the plane or after you land. If you feel joint pain, tingling or a strange rash, call DAN's emergency line at +1-919-684-9111 right away.

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Resources

Footnotes

1. “Flying After Diving.” Divers Alert Network, the 2002 workshop’s advice on waits, cabin heights and symptoms, read 27 Sept. 2026, dan.org. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. “Fast Facts: DAN’s Quick Guide to DCS, PFO, Flying After Diving.” DAN World, Asia-Pacific, March 2026, world.dan.org. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. Pollock, Neal W. “Flying After Pool Diving.” Alert Diver, Divers Alert Network, 1 February 2017, dan.org. ↩

4. “10 Things You Should Never Do Immediately After Diving.” PADI Blog, Professional Association of Diving Instructors, updated 10 June 2024, blog.padi.com. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

5. Vann, Richard D., ed. “Guidelines for Flying After Diving: Proceedings Summary.” Divers Alert Network, Durham, North Carolina, 2004, dan.org. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. “Diving After Flying.” DAN Southern Africa, on dehydration and easing into the first day of a trip, 1 March 2016, dansa.org. ↩ ↩² ↩³

7. “What is no-fly time and how is it calculated by the Suunto Fused RGBM 2 algorithm?” Suunto support, read 27 Sept. 2026, suunto.com. ↩

8. “Emergency Assistance.” Divers Alert Network, the 24-hour hotline and non-emergency medical line, read 27 Sept. 2026, dan.org. ↩