'Horrific' experience as musician stopped from boarding flights at Cork Airport
A professional musician was denied boarding on two flights at Cork Airport while attempting to travel with his fragile baroque instruments. Despite having successfully flown with the instruments previously, airline staff refused to accommodate the equipment, forcing the musician to travel to a different airport.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the ongoing challenges and inconsistencies faced by professional musicians when traveling with specialized, fragile equipment on commercial airlines.
Pablo Zapico's instruments are replicas of baroque instruments. Picture: Pedro Puente Hoyos
A professional musician was stopped from boarding two flights in Cork Airport with his musical instruments — forcing him to travel to Dublin Airport to leave the country.
Pablo Zapico had travelled to Cork to perform at classical music festival West Cork Music with Spanish conductor and violinist Daniel Pinteño’s Baroque ensemble Concerto 1700.
He flew into Cork with his two instruments — a baroque-era string instrument called a theorbo and a baroque guitar — on July 2 with KLM.
Mr Zapico performs internationally, regularly flying with his instruments, and had previously encountered no problems.
He books an extra seat for the theorbo, while the smaller classical guitar can be carried as cabin baggage and stowed in the overhead compartment, or secured with a seatbelt to the theorbo in the extra seat he buys.
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