Study shows passengers kiss every 49 seconds
New research out today reveals that love, actually, is at Heathrow with arriving passengers sharing 74 kisses there each hour on average – the equivalent to 1,258 kisses per day(1).
Taking inspiration from Richard Curtis’s film Love Actually, Terminal 3 Arrivals (where the movie was filmed) was top of the terminals with 29 kisses taking place there each hour – adding up to almost 200,000 kisses every year.
According to the observational study conducted at Heathrow(2), Terminal 1 took second place with 19 kisses per hour, followed by Terminal 5 with 15 kisses and Terminal 4 with 11.
As Brits gear up for Valentine’s Day, nearly half a million passengers (484,868) plan to fly from Heathrow between Friday 10 and Tuesday 14 February with New York topping the list of romantic destinations.
According to a poll of more than 1,000 Brits(3), the average couple shares three kisses a day with their other half – or 1,095 per year.
Surprisingly, the honeymoon period for couples is not in fact the first six months - in which they share just 25 kisses each week - but rather the period between their first and second anniversary during which time they share 31 kisses per week. This drops to just 19 when the relationship reaches five years.
The findings show that London couples kiss the most, averaging 26 per week, while Yorkshire came bottom with just 19. A loveless one in 20 Brits (four per cent) do not kiss their other half at all during an average week.
Heathrow’s top five destinations for Valentine’s Day
- New York
- Dubai
- Dublin
- Amsterdam
- Frankfurt
To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Heathrow is giving Twitter and Facebook followers the chance to win a romantic trip to Paris.
Notes to editors
(1) Figure based on a 17-hour operational day at Heathrow from 05:00 to 22:00.
(2) Observational teams at Heathrow recorded the data over the course of one day on 7 February 2012 in all terminals.
(3) Heathrow used the independent online research company FlyResearch, who surveyed 1,002 Brits aged 18 and over, between 2 and 6 February 2012.
FlyResearch is an online market research company. Its researches are members of the MRS, PRCA, BPC and Esomar, and abide by their guidelines. Further information is available at www.FlyResearch.com.
For more information please contact the Heathrow consumer press office at Mischief PR on 020 3128 6600 / baa@mischiefpr.com.
