Musician claims she was publicly humiliated by Ryanair over violin luggage row

The instrument case was 1cm over the airline’s cabin luggage limit, says the artist

Esther Abrami was travelling to record her third studio album with Sony Classical (PA)

A renowned classical musician has claimed that she was refused boarding by Ryanair during a row over airline luggage rules regarding her 200-year-old violin.

Esther Abrami, a 27-year-old violinist from France, shared on Instagram that she had experienced “simply unacceptable” “public humiliation” while attempting to board a Ryanair flight to Berlin from Marseille on Tuesday (3 September).

Ms Abrami told her 338,000 followers: “I was refused boarding on a Ryanair flight with my 200-year-old violin today.

“[...] this is the first time I have experienced such rudeness and public humiliation.”

The violinist was travelling to Berlin to record her third studio album with Sony Classical. In 2022, Abrami performed her debut at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and was the first classical musician ever to win the ‘Social Media Superstar’ category at the Global Awards in 2019.

At the gate, she was told that the Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin would have to be checked in the hold as it exceeded the requirements for cabin luggage when measured.

According to Ms Abrami: “The requirements for the cabin luggage – which I had paid for already – is a length of 55cm. My violin measures 56cm, it fitted diagonally and otherwise was 1cm over. Even this was refused.”

Guidance on Ryanair’s website states: “You can carry any music equipment with you onboard as long as it fits within your cabin bag allowance. For smaller music equipment like guitars or violins that exceed your cabin baggage dimensions, you can opt to pay an extra seat fare for it.”

Ms Abrmai claimed she offered to pay “whatever it would cost” to travel with her instrument but Ryanair said it was not possible to buy an extra seat as the flight had closed.

“I explained the price and the fragility of the violin. I begged them, explaining I was recording this very same day for my album, telling that I had flown an incredible number of times with this company and never experienced this. It came to the point where I even offered to take my violin out of the case, keeping its fabric protection and just carry it by hand and keeping it on me during the whole flight whilst they put the case in the cargo,” she added.

The musician said she felt “incredibly fortunate” to rebook alternative travel with a different airline to reach the recording session on Tuesday.

“In an industry where every opportunity counts, such an incident can have a ripple effect, impacting reputation and future prospects. This is simply unacceptable,” Ms Abrami said.

A spokesperson for Ryanair told The Independent that Ms Abrami was not refused travel with the airline: “Violinists travelling with Ryanair have to obey the same rules as everyone else; if it fits it can go onboard, but if it doesn’t it goes in the hold.”

The airline also told The Times that as the passenger’s violin case “exceeded the permitted cabin bag dimensions” and she refused to pay the standard fee, it was Ms Abrami’s choice “not to travel on this flight”.

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