Instruments on Planes

Sunday 27 May 2012

BA meet the ISM after calls for a musician-friendly policy

A recent change in the wording of their hand baggage policy means that British Airways’ (BA) appear to no longer guarantee that instruments such as violins and guitars can be carried as hand luggage and placed in overhead lockers. BA have reported that the original wording was a mistake but have now agreed to meet the ISM to discuss the issue in detail following our campaign which was reported in Music Week and the Telegraph and on our website.

ISM publishes report calling on Government to regulate airlines

As we speak to BA about adopting a musician-friendly hand-baggage policy, we have now published a report into the hand-baggage policies of UK based airlines - including a league table - with Valerie Vaz MP who has highlighted the campaign in Parliament. The league table was put together based on information available to professional musicians and airlines' replies to Valerie Vaz MP.

Musicians frequently encounter great difficulty when attempting to travel with their musical instruments which are often very fragile pieces of equipment. The ISM petition, with over 4,150 signatures, revealed thousands of incidents of mistreatment at the hands of airlines and an Early Day Motion supporting the instruments on planes campaign was signed by 28 MPs.

We are working with Valerie Vaz MP to call on the Government and the EU to regulate airlines where possible to allow small instruments in the cabin following similar legislation being passed in the US in support of musicians.

Previous campaign success with easyJet

easyJet announced a more musician-friendly hand baggage policy following discussions with the ISM. They expanded their hand baggage size for musical instruments to 117cm in length, allowing instruments such as violins, trumpets and guitars in the cabin as part of the hand baggage allowance.

Their chief commercial officer, Dana Dunne, said: ‘We are proud to support Europe’s rich musical heritage, and recognise that many professional musicians fly to festivals and concerts all over Europe. We value their business and believe that easyJet’s policy will be music to their ears.’