New Zealand airport sets three-minute hug limit in drop-off zone

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A proper goodbye, both the happy and heartbreaking, shouldn’t be rushed. But at one airport in New Zealand, there’s now a limit on how much time you can spend bidding farewell.

As reported by Radio New Zealand, Dunedin Airport, a single-terminal facility in the southeastern end of the country, introduced a three-minute “hug time” limit for its drop-off zone and suggested people use the 15-minute free parking area “for fonder farewells.”

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CEO Daniel De Bono said in addition to improving safety and traffic flow now that the drop-off zone was back in its old location following an expansion project, the new regulations are also meant to give more people a chance to bid adieu.

“There’s only so much space we have in the drop-off area and too many are spending too much time with their fonder farewells in the drop-off zone and there’s no space for others,” he told the radio station.

It was the administration’s way of playfully reducing the stress of what is traditionally an anxiety-inducing experience at most airports.

“Often at airport drop-off locations, the message can be quite intense,” he said. “‘You’re going to get fined, you’re going to get clamped, you need to move your car, go park in the car park.’

“We’re just trying to have some fun with it.”

De Bono did his own research into the science of hugs, telling the radio station that human beings only need to embrace for 20 seconds to trigger the release of oxytocin and serotonin – two hormones that promote a positive feeling.

“Anything less, you don’t get the happy hormones and anything longer, I guess, you probably get into the awkward territory.”

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Crunching the numbers, he said a three-minute hug would provide an entire day’s requirement of the hormones.

For those who just can’t let go, the airport won’t “call the hug police” but will politely ask you to relocate to the parking lot.

A cap on cuddles isn’t a new concept. Dozens of airports around the world have been using them for over a decade.

In 2013, Denmark’s Aalborg Airport created a “kiss and goodbye” area outside the terminal that also had a three-minute limit. Officials later told The Huffington Post that the zone had been in place for five years and was created, like in Dunedin, to deal with congestion of cars parked for too long.

At most North American airports, where someone in a high-vis vest comes to hurry you away before you’ve even got the trunk open, the notion of having time to say a proper goodbye is unfathomable to most domestic travellers.

But several major airports have introduced their own “kiss and fly” zones including Chicago O’Hare International Airports, San Francisco International and even Toronto’s Pearson International – located next to the ALT hotel with Viscount train access to Terminals 1 and 3.

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The practice is far more common in Europe, with Kayak.com pointing to Aarhus Airport in Denmark and Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport in France “offering ample time for heartfelt goodbyes, without incurring any charges.”

Meanwhile, the fee to merely access the drop-off area at several airports in the U.K., let alone making time for a hug or smooch, was increased earlier this year. For instance, at London’s Heathrow, the largest and busiest airport in the U.K., the fee is seven pounds – about $12.50 Canadian.

The idea may be relatively new to the airline industry, but a drop-off point for transit stations has been a common feature in many major North American cities for over 50 years.

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