Air Canada did not allow a British musician to board the plane with his millions of dollars cello even though he had paid for a seat for his instrument, forcing the cancellation of a sold-out concert in Toronto earlier this week.
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“One can only dream of a time when all airlines have a standardized and considered approach to how to transport precious musical instruments that have a reservation for cabin travel,” wrote British cellist Sheku Kanneh -Mason in a message published Thursday in X.
After greeting the Cincinnati audience on December 10, Mr. Kanneh-Mason and his sister, pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason, went back to bed because they had to take a plane early the next day to go to Toronto.
In the morning, the weather was bad and they learned that their flight, with American Airlines, had been canceled.
They then bought three tickets – two for the musicians, and one for the cello – for an Air Canada flight that would allow them to arrive just in time for the concert they were to give at Koerner Hall in Toronto.
Upon boarding, however, an Air Canada agent refused to let the cello pass. Faced with the impossibility of taking the plane and getting to Toronto by land in time, the concert ultimately had to be canceled.
“After nine stressful hours at the airport, we realized that our trip simply wouldn’t be possible,” the musician said in X.
Mr. Kaneh-Mason explained to Globe and Mail that his instrument, made in 1700 by Venetian luthier Matteo Goffriller, is worth millions of dollars. No question, then, of taking the risk of damaging it by transporting it in the hold with ordinary suitcases.
The Air Canada website specifies that it is possible to purchase a seat for a musical instrument with a 50% discount on published fares, in order to be able to transport the instrument in the cabin.
In this specific case, the airline claimed Globe and Mail that there was, at the time of boarding, no record of a seat being reserved for the cello, and that there was no longer sufficient time to obtain a ticket and bring the instrument in in the plane before takeoff. Air Canada maintains that an investigation is underway to determine what may have happened.
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