Baggage Talks

Virgin’s V Australia airline is putting together a task force to address the problems musicians face when they fly.

These include skyrocketing excess baggage charges and having to store breakable music instruments in the cargo hold.
A summit will be held late January.

National peak music association Australian Music Industry Network (AMIN) has set up an online survey to pinpoint issues that concern traveling musicians and to provide a snapshot of artists who fly to the airline.

The taskforce is the latest in V Australia’s alliance with the live music sector.

This has included funding a compilation CD of indigenous musicians called “Home 2” and installing a dedicated in-flight indigenous music channel called Red Channel.

Last month Australia’s national airline Qantas reversed a policy of storing all instruments except violins and violas in the hold, after a Facebook campaign gathered 8,700 signatures. AMIN says it plans to talk to Qantas about other issues.