New Zealand airport imposes three-minute limit on hugs
Al Jazeera
Measure intended to prevent extended embraces from causing traffic jams, but airport won’t have ‘hug police’.
An airport in New Zealand has imposed a three-minute limit on farewell hugs.
The CEO of Dunedin airport, Dan De Bono, said on Tuesday the new regulation was imposed in September to “keep things moving smoothly”. The measure is designed to prevent extended embraces leading to traffic jams at the provincial transport hub.
A sign recently placed in the area of the airport reserved for dropping off passengers reads “Max hug time three minutes”. Those seeking “fonder farewells” should head to the airport’s car park instead, it recommends.
The restriction has polarised social media users, De Bono said, with pictures of it going viral online.
“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. He asserted that others had welcomed the change.
