Airport crush TikTok shows man falling in love with fellow passenger

A woman was filmed on the flight by a man she described as a stalker. Photo / 123rf

Reports suggest young single people are ditching dating apps. So, how are they finding eligible partners? On planes, according to a couple who have gone viral on TikTok.

Securing a special someone isn’t that hard according to several videos posted to the platform; all you need to do is hang around the airport.

If you spot someone cute, the key is to be seated next to them on the flight and have one of you fall asleep on the other’s shoulder, according to a video posted by Noah Tumataroa.

Tumataroa shared a video of a woman sitting at a boarding gate, with the caption “omg I think I found a airport crush”.

The following clips show him following her down an escalator, with the caption “so cute”, and standing in the airbridge with the caption “holy sh*t we are on the same flight!?!!!”.

Tumataroa then slyly films her sitting next to him and appearing asleep on his shoulder.

“She didn’t give me her number and I don’t know her name ... help me find her,” he wrote at the end of the video, which has been viewed more than 6.1 million times.

@gottomatoes

Helppp

♬ original sound - Jeffrey Eli

In the comments, viewers debated whether the traveller filming the woman was romantic, creepy or actually staged to gain views.

Others said they resonated with the scene, with one person saying they also met their first crush at the airport.

A quick scroll through his previous videos reveal he is friends with the woman, Lily van der Meeden, and had been visiting Paris with her. This didn’t stop van der Meeden from continuing the ruse on her TikTok by sharing a video claiming Tumataroa had been stalking her.

“We caught the same flight together and we were sitting next to each other but it was not like planned and he was fully like filming me,” she said in the clip.

“I accidentally fell asleep on his shoulder and now he thinks I’m like in love with him and I have seen him in Sydney,” she added, before apparently seeing him on the street and having an argument.

Viewers quickly discovered the pair knew each other and were acting out the story to gain online attention.

The phenomenon of an “airport crush” continues to be a popular one in movies, books and now, TikTok fantasies.

There are more than 4000 videos tagged #airportcrush on TikTok, featuring people filming reactions to seeing someone attractive or doing their makeup and planning outfits to ‘be’ someone’s airport crush.

One popular angle, as Tumataroa showed, is filming a significant other and pretending not to know them.

“Help me find airport man,” one woman captions a TikTok showing several clips of “the hottest man” she had ever met.

Yet, it’s only in the final second of the video she reveals it is, in fact, her fiance.