Seems like people always interpret the literal as being symbolic and the symbolic as being literal.
The AIR and CLOUDS in Thes 1Th 4:17 were never meant to be interpreted as literal and Paul tells you so.
Eph 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Here Paul even interpretes it for you. He says plainly that when he speaks of AIR he is referring to the SPIRIT of Life.
He even goes further and gives you this:
r 12:1 ¶ Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
He is using clouds to mean a great throng, which is also the interpretation of Daniel 7 where it says:
Dan 7:13 ¶ I saw in the night visions, and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
That last passage in Daniel is the same event as Paul is speaking of in Thess 4 and is about Michael meeting Jesus and the Armies of Heaven in the Spirit after the Beast is defeated.
The event Paul is actually speaking about in Thes 4 is detailed in Zech:
Zec 12:8
In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David [shall be] as God, as the angel of the LORD before them
This is the event Thess 4:17 is describing.
It is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon those beaten almost to death by the Beast (using the metaphor of AIR) and meeting the Lord and his host (clouds of heaven) in the spirit as they suddenly rise up and destroy him by the power of God. Those who are alive and remain, being led by "the Angel of the Lord before them" (Michael) shall join the resurrected dead coming up from below and the Host of Heaven led by Jesus hurtling down from above in a massive knockout punch that throughly destroys the Beast and his minions and ushers in the 1000 year reign of Christ on Earth.
Instead of being afraid of the Apocalypse to the point of believing you will be either magically transported out of the world or by convencing yourself that it has already happened, you should have faith that the Lord will be with you through Tribulation and that in the end, it will all be worth it since:
Rev 20:6 Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
Because:
Rev 2:11
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
Which is wonderful because:
Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.