This Gives Entirely New Meaning to Speed Dating

AirTroductions deserves the groan-worthy headline. It’s a new service that acts as a matchmaker for air travelers, connecting two people traveling on the same flight. It’s billed as “JDate meets the Mile-High Club.” Founder Peter Shankman says in a press release: “Having taken over 500 flights in the past four years, I can count on one hand the number of times that I’ve been seated next to someone I actually wanted to talk to. Creating AirTroductions was a labor of love. Hopefully, people can match themselves up and sit next to someone they want to talk to! Imagine what kind of success can come from this, on a business, personal, and friendship level!”

So far the reaction around the blogosphere hasn’t been too kind. Frank Ahrens of the Washington Post writes:

Shankman sounds very much like someone you would not want for a neighbor unless he dialed back the exclamation marks a bit.

From Gridskipper:

All of this actually gives me the perfect idea for how to make AirTroductions work for me and others like me. If you dislike airplane conversation, just sign up and indicate such. Then we can all fly together without speaking a word, silently enjoying the pleasure of never meeting the person we were “AirTroduced” to online.

From Newley Purnell:

The AirTroductions tagline is “There’s Something in the Air.” I’ll say — I think it’s called desperation.

According to the AirTroductions Web site, more than 1,000 travelers have signed up for the service as of Wednesday night. The pool is small, so maybe it’s better to take the advice of Ahrens: “[Y]ou could spend the $5 on an in-flight cocktail, which will undoubtedly make you witty, fascinating and powerfully attractive to the person next to you.”

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