Emotional farewells are a common sight at airports – but travellers leaving the New Zealand city of Dunedin will have to be quick about it.

A new three-minute time limit on goodbye hugs in the airport’s drop-off area is intended to prevent lingering cuddles from causing traffic jams.

Signs outside the terminal warn: “Max hug time three minutes,” adding that those seeking “fonder farewells” should head to the airport’s car park instead.

The cuddle cap was imposed in September to “keep things moving smoothly” in the redesigned passenger drop-off area outside the airport, chief executive Dan De Bono told The Associated Press on Tuesday. It was the airport’s way of reminding people that the zone was for “quick farewells” only.

The signs had polarised social media users, Mr De Bono noted.

A sign advising three minute hug limits
Airport bosses insist they are not the cuddle police (Dunedin Airport via AP)

“We were accused of breaching basic human rights and how dare we limit how long someone can have a hug for,” he said, adding that others had welcomed the change.

The signs were meant as an alternative to those at other airports warning of wheel clamping or fines for drivers parked in drop-off areas. Some in the UK have imposed fees for all drop-offs — however brief.

Dunedin’s airport — a modest terminal serving a city of 135,000 people on New Zealand’s South Island — preferred a “quirky” approach, Mr De Bono said.

Three minutes was “plenty of time to pull up, say farewell to your loved ones and move on,” he said. “The time limit is really a nicer way of saying, you know, get on with it.”

A 20-second hug is long enough to release the wellbeing-boosting hormones oxytocin and serotonin, he added, with anything longer being “really awkward”.

But passengers need not worry unduly about enforcement. “We do not have hug police,” Mr De Bono said.

Visitors might, however, be asked to move their lingering embraces to the car park, where they can cuddle free of charge for up to 15 minutes.