Jason Gray-Stanford listed "Mr. Monk and the Airplane" among his three favorite episodes of the series. Moreover, it was positively received by critics. In The Futon Critic's ranking of the fifty best episodes of 2002, it was placed 32nd, with Brian Ford Sullivan stating, "The title of the episode says it all for us." "New York Daily News"s David Bianculli declared "It seems that lots of people are getting on board with "Monk", which is as it should be", referring to the guest stars of the episode. The guests were said to be one of the "many subtle and silly pleasures" of the episode by Kevin McDonough, a critic for the United Feature Syndicate, while a "TelevisionWeek" reviewer praised Marshall performance as a " guest shot". Austin Smith of the "New York Post" deemed it "a true classic" and said it put "Mr. Monk Takes Manhattan" "to shame". Chris Hicks from "Deseret News" qualified it as "perfection," and Bianculli stressed "the writing team for "Monk" made the most" of it. On the other hand, Joy Press of "The Village Voice" called it "a "Seinfeld"-like device" in which Monk's fear of flying was explored "to the point of exhaustion."