23 August 2010
Qantas - war on violins?
To QANTAS ADMINISTRATION
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a professional violinist; I fly regularly on Qantas.
Yesterday, I tried to check in on QF 791 from Alice Springs to
Sydney with my standard violin. I was told that the violin case
was too long and would have to go in the hold. I have been a
freelance violinist playing worldwide for nearly 40 years,
travelling on most major airlines, and this has never happened
before. I asked to see the manager; he was polite and
considerate, but informed me that this was the new three-week-old
Qantas policy. Treading the frugal and precarious financial line,
as do most performers in the arts these days, I could not afford
to miss the flight and pay for a ticket on another airline.
My regular violin case measures 78cm x 25cm x 15 cm and weighs in
under 5kg. The total dimension of my violin case and contents
under the Qantas total measurement system = 118 cm. Qantas total
measurements for all domestic carryon luggage is, according to
your website, 115 cm and 7 Kg. Thus, my violin is way under
regarding your weight restrictions and precisely 3 cm over in
your total dimension restrictions.
So, my violin traveled in the hold, while wheel-on-bags weighing
many times more, at least three passengers carrying on 1.5-meter
poster tubes, and one gentleman carrying on an enormous pair of
flippers (much longer than my violin case) were let on without so
much as a wink and a nod.
The purser on the flight, Stan Chabasinski, himself a violin
owner, was very understanding about my predicament and went out
of his way to insure that my violin was unloaded and handed to me
at the exit of the plane on disembarking, so the instrument would
not be damaged on the cart or baggage belt. My violin may not
quite be in the Strad evaluation class, but it is worth a fortune
to me, as I earn my livelihood with it.
The chances of finding another violin-playing purser on a Qantas
flight are unlikely. However, the chances of again dealing with a
Qantas check-in staff member who knows nothing about violins is
high. So I'm in the position of either having to give up playing
the violin for a living or giving up Qantas for good. It's
difficult to estimate, but up to perhaps 5,000 other Australian
professional violinists and students might have to make a similar
decision. Certainly no international violinist, string quartet,
or orchestra coming to perform in Australia will now take a
chance with your airline. The ramifications of the following
recent examples will have a flow-on effect for arts festivals of
all sizes and musical genres - word travels fast in the music
world.
Yesterday, I heard a ridiculous story, whereby Dene Olding,
concertmaster of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, had to cancel a
flight because Qantas would not let him take his violin (a Joseph
Guarnerius violin made in 1720 and probably insured for several
hundred thousand dollars) into the cabin. I understand he was
allowed onto a later flight if he signed a piece a paper that
stated he was a member of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, an
organisation that he left many years ago but is in theory
sponsored by Qantas.
Emma Dean's violin horror story has already been well documented in the Daily
Telegraph.
Markus Hodgson, operations director of Musica Viva, has told me
of another astonishing story whereby a daughter of a colleague
was told by a Qantas check-in employee that she must buy another
seat for her violin (not a cello!). Pressured and probably
inexperienced, she acquiesced, only to be told, once in the
cabin, that her violin must go in the overhead locker, as it
would be a safety hazard. Anyway, Musica Viva, as one of
Australia's main tour management organisations in the field of
classical music, is clearly concerned about this new Qantas
directive, which is potentially discriminatory. Musica Viva has
violinists flying in and out of this country all the time.
I called the Australian Chamber Orchestra for their view on the
situation; after all, the national carrier is one of their
chest-beating sponsors. Apparently, 'It is an issue'. By that, I
assume more bureaucratic forms have to be filled out by already
overworked staff, indicating all personal info, instruments,
flight schedules, etc., so that each violin and viola playing
member of the ACO can have their exemption, i.e. get on the plane
with their musical instrument.
Today, I heard via mobile phone at Melbourne Airport from a
violist colleague, employed for an overseas engagement by Opera
Australia, that a special dispensation had had to be negotiated
with Qantas management in order that he could travel to Europe
with his viola. This is all so last minute and stressful for the
musician-and amateurish behaviour from Qantas. Yesterday, he
wasn't going; today, he is going; tomorrow (I guess), he may not
come back. No matter what you think of the music, this opera took
over five years to produce, and Qantas are making arbitrary
decisions as if they were flicking the remote on commercial TV,
trying to find something to look at or someone to blame. Besides
- most violinists are freelance and don't have Opera Australia
management going into bat for them.
In classical music, the rule of thumb goes something like: the
bigger the band, the more string players there are - so we're
talking, in terms of a symphony orchestra, of 40-50
violinists/violists, 8-12 cellists (who all have to buy an extra
seat for their cellos), and 6-8 double bass players. Double
basses are called trees in the business because they are big, the
wood is comparatively thick, they always have cracks in them
(character), and they are able to withstand the Arctic
temperatures in the holds of intercontinental flights. Violins
don't do well in the fridge. So I asked the Sydney Symphony how
they will deal with the new Qantas plan for cultural compliance.
'Don't know really', said the man in the SSO office; 'They all
left for an international tour this morning'. On Qantas? 'No, of
course not; they fly Emirates!'
Let me spell it out. A violin is a very fragile instrument:
strung under high tension, held together by wood glue, supported
by a slender free-standing soundpost, and sonically enhanced with
the almost mystical weight-bearing properties of the unseen bass
bar. There is very little tolerance (in the engineering sense)
between success and disaster. Changes in air pressure and
variable temperatures in an aircraft hold can wreck an
instrument.
If the instrument is to be shipped in such a case, all tension
must be removed from the soundpost and bridge by a trained
luthier. The instrument, at the other end, must be re-set by
another expert (not the instrumentalist), and would not be
playable for several days until it stabilised. Certainly no one
playing contemporary music can afford this.
My wife is the American violinist Hollis
Taylor. After 9/11, she experienced a period of instability
when musicians in the States had no clear and consistent policy
about travelling with their instruments (every violin case
contains a gangster's gun). Eventually, the American Federation
of Musicians worked with the major US airlines towards a
consistent and fair policy: 'The Transport Security
Administration instructs aircraft operators that effective
immediately, they are to allow musical instruments as carry-on
baggage in addition to the limit of one bag and one personal item
per person as carry-on baggage on an aircraft'. Clearly, the TSA
thought it appropriate that airline staff at the check-in would
be allowed to use their intelligence - no one tried to board with
a grand piano.
It appears that one reason for the chaos with Qantas's
ill-considered policy is the insistence that businessmen and
women don't want to wait for their luggage at the belt on their
overnight deal-making visits between Melbourne and Sydney, hence
the excessive weight in the overhead lockers. A problem. But
trying to solve one problem by creating a new one, not allowing
violins in the cabin of your aircraft, is not smart thinking.
Revenue aside, the reputation of Qantas is at stake here; the
company cannot have it both ways, trumpeting on one hand that it
supports Australian artists, and on the other hand, screwing the
non-sponsored artist's ability to earn a living (and a tough one
at that).
It would appear that Qantas middle management has unwittingly
entered the arena of art criticism and curation, deciding who
will and will not perform in Australia, and making and breaking
careers of violinists, violists, and string students of many
different genres of music, since only Qantas-approved artists can
now travel on their planes.
I await your speedy response to this matter, as I will be flying
to the USA and Europe with my violin again in September, October,
and November. As an Australian citizen, I would prefer to fly
Qantas, but…
Sincerely,
Jon Rose
© Australian Music Centre (2010) — Permission must be obtained from the AMC if you wish to reproduce this article either online or in print.
Jon Rose has created a body of radical music, and an alternative cultural context for the violin, its practice and its history
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Qantas "Interim Policy"
by David Cann on 25 August, 2010, 9:25am
Hi John, great article. I have a letter from Qantas that states that ALL violins/violas are allowed on board until the end of August (until a permanent procedure of carriage for musical instruments is written by Customer Care). If you'd like a copy I'd be happy to forward one to you. cheers David
"it's a new policy"
by Richard MacEwan on 30 August, 2010, 11:38pm
Hi John,
very interesting to read your article. I first hit this 'policy' on a return flight from Coff's Harbour to Sydney last October, when i was told that i couldn't take my fiddle on board and it must be checked. I asked when this policy had been instigated and was told 'six weeks ago'. I politely pointed out that i had made five internal flights in the previous month and even taken a banjo in soft case on board with no objection. In June this year i travelled to Cairns with a banjo uke in a soft case and was given the same story - can't take it on board if it doesn't fit in the standard case sizing cage at the boarding gate. On both occasions i was "let off this time", and in the recent case was once again told it was a new policy that came in 'six weeks ago'. So, who knows what the pursers are being told about this 'policy' which has obviously been around for at least year (but only in the last few weeks!)
An American friend of mine returning to the states in May was also blocked by this policy and told at the gate that the case was too big and had to be checked. She's pretty smart. She took the violin out of the case, gave them the case to check and took the violin on board!