So short, farewell: New Zealand airport enforces 3-minute goodbye limit to control traffic
Dunedin Airport’s new rule sparks debate on social media about the right amount of time for farewells.
A sign informing time limits for visitors to the passenger drop-off area outside Dunedin Airport in New Zealand. Photo: APWhether parents are dropping off their university-bound children or lovers bidding adieu, emotional farewells are common at airports. But people leaving the New Zealand city of Dunedin will now have to be quick.
A new three-minute time limit on goodbye hugs in the airport’s drop-off area is meant to prevent traffic jams caused by lingering cuddles.
“Max hug time three minutes,” warn signs outside the terminal, adding that those seeking “fonder farewells” should head to the airport’s parking lot instead.
The cuddle cap was imposed in September to “keep things moving smoothly” in the redesigned passenger drop-off area outside the airport, CEO Dan De Bono said. It was the airport’s way of reminding people that the zone was for “quick farewells” only.
The signs had polarised social media users, De Bono said.
“We were accused of breaching basic human rights and how dare we limit how long someone can have a hug for,” he said, adding that others had welcomed the change.
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The signs were meant as an alternative to those at other airports warning of wheel clamping or fines for drivers parked in drop-off areas. Some in Britain have imposed fees for all drop-offs.
Dunedin’s airport – a modest terminal serving a city of 135,000 people on New Zealand’s South Island – preferred a “quirky” approach, De Bono said.
Three minutes was “plenty of time to pull up, say farewell to your loved ones and move on”, he said. “The time limit is really a nicer way of saying, you know, get on with it.”
A 20-second hug is long enough to release the well-being-boosting hormones oxytocin and serotonin, De Bono said. Anything longer was “really awkward”.
But passengers need not worry unduly about enforcement. “We do not have hug police,” De Bono said.
Visitors might, however, be asked to move their lingering embraces to the parking lot, where they can cuddle free of charge for up to 15 minutes.