The studio wanted a different title for the movie, but Gerard Butler insisted on keeping the title simple and went with "Plane."
The movie features several former Navy SEALs as stunt performers and consultants, because the director Jean-François Richet wanted to make the action scenes as realistic and authentic as possible. He hired Remi Adeleke and Pete Scobell, who are both former Navy SEALs and have experience in acting and stunt work, to help train the actors and coordinate the stunts. They also appear in the movie as minor characters or extras.
Its Philippine distributor has voluntarily taken out the film from Philippine theaters, after Filipino Senators voiced their concerns stating that the film is "offensive to the nation's name and reputation." Senator Robin Padilla noted that the film's bad image of the Philippines comes at a time when the country is trying to revive its tourism after the Covid-19 pandemic. He also added that If the producers of the film claim it is fiction, they should not have said the story happened in the Philippines. He also voiced concern over the film's portrayal of Jolo residents as siding with the terrorists.
The movie was originally scheduled to be released in October 2022, but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, because the production was affected by the lockdowns and travel restrictions imposed by various countries. The filming was completed in late 2021, but the post-production and marketing were delayed by several months.
In a 2023 interview, Jean-François Richet spoke about using the film's physical challenges to enhance the storytelling: "When you see the characters with sweat, it is real. It's not fake. We don't put water on them just before the shot. So it was real. And when they are tired and exhausted, it's real too. So it was very interesting for this story. You have to take the difficulty and transform the energy... into good things for the movie. You cannot fight against that, so you have to play with it."