New Zealand airport imposes cuddle cap with 3-minute limit on goodbye hugs to avoid traffic jams

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Emotional farewells are a standard sight at airports, however vacationers leaving the New Zealand metropolis of Dunedin must be fast. A brand new three-minute time restrict on goodbye hugs within the airport’s drop-off space is meant to forestall lingering cuddles from inflicting visitors jams.

“Max hug time three minutes,” warn indicators exterior the terminal, including that these searching for “fonder farewells” ought to head to the airport’s car parking zone as an alternative.

The cuddle cap was imposed in September to “maintain issues shifting easily” within the redesigned passenger drop-off space exterior the airport, CEO Dan De Bono informed The Related Press on Tuesday. It was the airport’s manner of reminding folks that the zone was for “fast farewells” solely.

The indicators had polarized social media customers, De Bono mentioned.

“We had been accused of breaching fundamental human rights and the way dare we restrict how lengthy somebody can have a hug for,” he mentioned, including that others had welcomed the change.

The indicators had been meant as an alternative choice to these at different airports warning of wheel clamping or fines for drivers parked in drop-off areas. Some in Britain have imposed charges for all drop-offs — nonetheless transient.

Dunedin’s airport — a modest terminal serving a metropolis of 135,000 individuals on New Zealand’s South Island — most popular a “quirky” method, De Bono mentioned.

Three minutes was “loads of time to drag up, say farewell to your family members and transfer on,” he mentioned. “The time restrict can be a nicer manner of claiming, you already know, get on with it.”

A 20-second hug is lengthy sufficient to launch the wellbeing-boosting hormones oxytocin and serotonin, De Bono mentioned. Something longer was “actually awkward.”

However passengers needn’t fear unduly about enforcement. “We don’t have hug police,” De Bono mentioned.

Guests may, nonetheless, be requested to maneuver their lingering embraces to the car parking zone, the place they’ll cuddle freed from cost for as much as quarter-hour.