The Asian airline that loves musical instruments
mainFrom the Strasbourg Philharmoic Orchestra:
The Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg has just returned from a very successful tour in Korea under their music director Marko Letonja. For the trip from Frankfurt to Seoul, the Korean producer insisted that the musicians whose instruments were portable should take them in the cabin, and said that he had cleared everything with the airline. We were understandably in light of peoples’ experiences with other airlines – somewhat nervous; but in the interests of goodwill and good relations with our producer we agreed.
Asiana Airlines (based in South Korea) was superb. All the instruments were boarded, they were properly stowed and no one had any problems whatever. The only glitch was the trombone cases, which were a little larger than the permissible dimensions. We found a solution for the outward trip, but for the return trip, where Asiana had been alerted in advance to the issue, they went to the extent of calling our trombonists to board first so that they could properly stow their instruments before everyone else boarded. The service was top notch, and I think the airline really deserves some recognition for their effort in light of what their competition seems to be doing.
Great to hear that there is an airline company that actually “CARE” about musical instruments and musicians, exists. Bravi Asiana Airlines! Send this note to United, Delta, Norwegian, and to those companies that only care about taking money from people.
A pleasant change from the usual airline horror stories.
I can also vouch for Asiana Airlines as my Hermitage Piano Trio just flew to Korea for concerts, and we had no issues what so ever. Our cellist was met with a smile, my violin case was not touched once (moved or adjusted in the overhead compartment). I guess maybe we should consider taking our own Steinway for our next trip on Asiana? Perhaps not…
Good to hear a positive story.
Asiana Airlines has its own concert series and its own hall in Seoul – Kumho. The late Chairman Park – his brother is now in charge – was a true lover of the arts.
It is no surprise that Asiana Airline went through all these trouble for the sake of classical musicians.
The “KumHo Asians” Corp. is one of the very few big conglomerates in Korea that heavily supports and sponsors various classical concerts and performances.
It even has “Kum Ho concert hall” and sponsors various young Korean artists and hold various concerts from Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Alban Gerhardt, Jordi Savall and François-Frédéric Guy, just to name the few this year.
Every Korean classical lovers knows Asiana’s enthusiam and contribution to clasical music scene in Korea. And I am grateful for thier involvement as a classical music lover and good on them to go extra mile to facilitate performers.
I hope to see more positive news like this from other airlines in the world and more corporate menenat activities on classical industry.
doubtless lots of jet-setting parents will be encouraging their progeny to take up the trombone…..