Washington, Nov. 8 (BUS) – The United States on Monday lifted travel restrictions from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, paving the way for an emotional reunion nearly two years ago and providing a boost to the airline. and tourism industries devastated by the epidemic.
Wives will hug their husbands for the first time in months. Grandmothers will pet the grandchildren who have doubled in age since the last time they were seen. The AP reports that aunts, uncles and cousins will be cuddling with children they haven’t met yet.
“I’m going to jump in his arms, kiss him, and touch him,” Gay Camara said of her husband in New York she hasn’t seen since before COVID-19 brings the aviation world here, there, and everywhere. stood up.
“Just talking about it makes me feel emotional,” said Camara, 40, as she moved her luggage through Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport, as one could almost mistake it for a pre-pandemic, preoccupied with wandering crowds, albeit in face masks. .
Rules that go into effect Monday allow air travel from a string of countries that have been banned from travel since the pandemic’s early days — as long as the traveler has proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test. Those crossing the land border from Mexico or Canada will require proof of vaccination but no test.
U.S. citizens and permanent residents have always been allowed into the United States, but travel bans have kept tourists from entering, frustrating business travelers and often tearing families apart.
When Camara last saw her husband Mamadou in January 2020, they had no way of knowing that they would have to wait 21 months before they catch each other again. She lives in the French region of Alsace, where she works as a secretary. He resides in New York.
“It was very difficult at first. I was crying almost every night,” she said.
Video calls, text messages, and phone conversations kept them connected—but they couldn’t fill the classroom void.
She said, “I can’t wait.” “Be with him his presence, his face and his smile.”
Airlines are preparing to ramp up activity after the pandemic and the resulting restrictions have caused international travel to plummet. Data from travel and analytics company Cirium showed that airlines are increasing flights between the UK and the US by 21% this month compared to last month.
In a sign of the huge importance of transatlantic travel for airlines, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic celebrated the reopening by synchronizing the early morning departures of their flights to New York on parallel runways at London’s Heathrow Airport.
BA CEO Sean Doyle was on his company plane.
“Together, even as competitors, we have fought for the safe return of transatlantic travel – and now we are celebrating that achievement as a team. Few things are more important than individual excellence, and this is one of those things,” Doyle wrote in a letter to clients. Carrying the number that belonged to the supersonic Concorde.
For Martin Kerherf, being separated from loved ones in the United States was filled with fears that they might not survive the pandemic that has killed more than 5 million people worldwide.
“We told ourselves we could die without seeing each other,” said Kerherf, who was heading to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from Paris. “We’ve all gone through periods of depression and anxiety.”
Before the pandemic, this was a trip that Kerherve and her partner, Francis Pasquier, took once or twice a year. “We lost our bearings,” Pasquier said when they lost it.
Meanwhile, Maria Geribet has not seen her twin grandchildren, Gabriel and David, for about half their lives. Now 3 1/2, the boys are in San Francisco, which during the height of the pandemic may also have been another planet for 74-year-old Giribet, who lives on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
“I’m going to hug them, and suffocate them, and that’s what I dream about,” Gerbet said after checking in for her flight. A widow, she lost her husband to a long illness before the pandemic, and her three children live abroad.
“I found myself completely alone,” said Geripet, who was flying solo for the first time in her life.
The change will also have a profound impact on the US borders with Mexico and Canada, where back-and-forth travel was a way of life until the pandemic broke out and the US halted non-essential travel.
Malls, restaurants, and shops on Main Street in US border towns have been devastated by the lack of visitors from Mexico. On the border with Canada, cross-border hockey competitions that had been a societal tradition were overturned.
Churches that had members on both sides of the border hope to welcome parishioners they haven’t seen in nearly two years.
River Robinson’s American partner was unable to be in Canada for the birth of their baby before 17 months. I was thrilled to hear the news of the US reopening.
“I’m planning to drop off my baby on American Thanksgiving,” said Robinson, who lives in St. Thomas, Ontario. “If things go smoothly on the border, I will plan to take him down as often as I can.”
“It’s crazy to think that he has another side of the family that he hasn’t met yet,” she added.
The United States will accept travelers who have been fully vaccinated with any of the shots approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization, not just those used in the United States, which is convenient for many in Canada, where the AstraZeneca vaccine is widely used
But millions of people around the world who have been vaccinated with Russia’s Sputnik V, China’s CanSino, or others not approved by the World Health Organization will not be able to travel to the United States.
The moves come as the United States has seen a marked improvement in the outlook for the spread of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in recent weeks since a summer delta rush that pushed hospitals to the brink in many locations.
Insiders in the travel industry are hoping it will provide a boost after the coronavirus travel ban brought the sector to its knees.
Traveling from Paris to a travel industry conference in Las Vegas, travel agent Francis Legros is determined to breathe life back into his company.
“We are rebuilding,” he said. “It’s a new chapter, a new career.”