Airport sparks debate with introduction of 'hug time' limit

An airport in New Zealand has sparked a debate after asking travelers to limit their "hug times" in order to "reduce congestion."

Dunedin Airport announced in late September that in order to improve safety and traffic flow, it would limit time spent in the drop-off zone to three minutes maximum and included a photo of the announcement sign.

"Max hug time 3 minutes," the sign read. "For fonder farewells please use the car park."

In a recent interview with Radio New Zealand, Dunedin Airport CEO Daniel De Bono said the sign introduction had "caused quite a stir."

"We've got quite a bit of conversation going," De Bono said. "They're going, 'Oh, you can't tell us how long we can ever hug for.'"

People online have weighed in on the "hug time" limit, with some agreeing a three-minute time limit is a reasonable amount of time for an airport send-off while others questioned whether a limit was even necessary.

"That's hilarious. But 3 min is long enough the free drop off section for a hug. As they say, go to the parking lot. Lol,"' wrote one in a Reddit comment.

"Should we really be putting a time limit on something as meaningful as a hug?" another asked on TikTok.

De Bono told Radio New Zealand that at the end of the day, the purpose behind the "fun" message for travelers is crowd control.

"It's really about enabling enough space for others to also have hugs, right? So there's only so much space we have in that drop-off area," De Bono said. "Too many people are spending too much time with their fonder farewells in the drop-off zone, there's no space left for others."

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And if some stragglers didn't pay any mind to the new signs, De Bono said there wouldn't be too much intense backlash.

"All we can do is ask them to politely move on to the car park to grab some space for others, so it's not more than that," said De Bono. "We're not going to call the hug police. That would be bonkers."