Romance up in the air: How two travellers in their 70s found love on a flight
Falling in love when you are travelling up in the air may sound like something out of a movie, but it may be more common than you thought. A recent HSBC study, which surveyed more than 5,000 travellers around the world, claims that one in 50 air passengers will meet the love of their life on a plane.
And that is exactly what happened for 70-year-old David Swann and 69-year-old Kathleen Foreman.
Through a flight to Fiji, multiple coincidences and decisions made in impulse, the two found love and are now happily married.
Last May, Swann was slated to travel from Melbourne to Fiji when his flight was cancelled. As he waited for his rescheduled flight to be sorted out, he met Foreman, a fellow passenger who was looking to visit her brother. The two began chatting while they waited for the boarding time.
When they finally got to the aircraft, Swann found out that they were seated “one row apart from each other”. But that was not close enough for the bachelor, so he talked to a cabin crew to move his seat next to Freeman for the rest of the five-hour flight.
They “continued chatting and getting to know each other throughout the flight” before touching down in Fiji.
The two went on their separate ways as Swann headed for Matamanoa Island while Foreman proceeded to Suva, where her brother lives. However, before parting, they promised to get in touch upon their return to Australia.
He went back home after 12 days in Fiji, and she returned three weeks after that. Foreman then decided to take the leap. “Four days after arriving home in Mildura, Kath drove 740 kilometres to Apollo Bay to see me and to find out if the feelings she had were reciprocated,” Swann told news.com.au.
“They were … after almost a month of dating, I asked Kath to marry me.”
The couple wasted no time to express their commitment to each other, as they both had reached the later stage in life. “We were married on the 9th March 2019 on the beach near our home in Apollo Bay surrounded by family and friends,” said Swann.
They are set to fly to Fiji again this May to mark the anniversary of their fateful meeting. “Both Kath and I often look at each other and shake our heads and wonder that this whole, wonderful situation came about because of a cancelled flight!”