Airport imposes three-minute LIMIT on farewell hugs

An airport has imposed a three-minute limit on farewell hugs in its drop-off area in order to avoid traffic jams.

At Dunedin Airport in New Zealand, a sign has been erected which reads “maximum hug time three minutes, for fonder farewells please use the car park”.

The CEO of the airport, Dan De Bono, said that the new rules were imposed to “keep things moving smoothly”, so that lingering cuddles wouldn’t cause any congestion.

The cap was imposed in September, telling travellers and drivers to head to the car park if they wanted a longer time to say farewell.

Here, they have 15 minutes to hug to their heart’s content.

If you exceed the 180-second limit in the drop-off area, DeBono said the punishment would not be severe: “We’re not going to call the hug police, that would be bonkers.”

The rule change has angered some on social media, with pictures of the sign going viral online.

“It’s caused quite a stir,” De Bono told local media. “People are going ‘you can’t tell us how long we can have a hug for.”

“We were accused of breaching basic human rights and how dare we limit how long someone can have a hug for,” the CEO told The Associated Press news agency.

More to follow…