FinishMySong Blog

In the BBC music news today is a story about how the heightened security in British airports is affecting traveling musicians who carry very fragile and often very valuable instruments with them on their journeys around the world. The problem is that, with the increased caution on flights to and from the UK, musicians are now being told that they have to check their instruments into the cargo hold of flights - a part of the plane that can get colder than -10 degrees centigrade.

Apart from the damage caused to instruments by airport staff who, probably due to time constraints more than anything else, have a tendency to be less than careful when loading and unloading luggage into the planes, the materials that many instruments are made from and the delicacy of their construction means that sudden changes in temperature and air pressure can themselves cause irreparable harm to instruments, particularly on lengthy flights. Normally, musicians carrying large instruments go to great lengths to keep their tools with them, including booking an additional seat on the aircraft so that there'll be enough room in the pressurised cabin for it to travel by their sides.

But, the new rules for inbound and outbound UK flights means that no hand-luggage whatsoever is allowed in the cabin and this includes musical instruments with or without their cases. And, to some degree I can understand this precaution by the authorities, although it does conjure images in my mind of mafia bosses carrying machine guns down dark, rainy backstreets in violin cases! There must be a compromise, though - surely airlines realise that some people will need to travel with belongings that simply cannot be kept in the cargo hold of a jet, either because of the fragility of the item or due to its importance or value, for example laptops containing extremely sensitive or business-critical information. The way I see it, there are two possible solutions : either drastically improve the manner in which luggage is checked in, how it is handled by airport staff and provide a system by which the stuff can be picked up without the risk of it being damaged or stolen by other passengers, or else take some of the seats out of the cabin and replace them with a large, locked storage area in which passengers can check in anything that cannot be placed in the cargo-hold, perhaps for an extra charge. In the meantime, people who need to keep their valuable equipment with them will either have to find a way of packaging it up in the safest possible way or just choose another way of getting to their destination. Obviously, though, if the place is a long-haul flight away that could be something of a problem!