US welcomes first travellers as Covid travel curbs lifted

A performer juggles as he engages with travellers while they queue to check into Virgin Atlantic and Delta Air Lines flights at Heathrow Airport Terminal 3, following the lifting of restrictions on the entry of non-US citizens to the United States in London yesterday. (Reuters)

Packed intercontinental flights touched down and people embraced relatives at land borders yesterday after the United States lifted restrictions imposed on travellers from much of the world when the Covid-19 pandemic began.The travel ban, first imposed in early 2020, had barred access to non-US citizens travelling from 33 countries — including China, India and much of Europe — and had also restricted overland entry from Mexico and Canada.“Today, America is open for business. That is our message to the world,” US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters in an interview at Chicago’s O’Hare airport.Jez Cartwright, 49, was one of the first passengers off BA001, the first British Airways flight to land at JFK airport from London’s Heathrow airport.“It’s brilliant to be on a full plane again,” he said.Earlier, on the other side of the Atlantic, travellers boarding planes at airports in Frankfurt, Paris and London said they were eager to reunite with family and friends.“I was meant to go just before Covid happened, and obviously it’s been delayed this long, so it’s really exciting to finally be able to go,” Alice Keane, travelling to Miami to see her sister, said at London’s Heathrow airport.Months of pent-up demand triggered a major spike in bookings yesterday, with travellers only required to show official proof of vaccination and a recent, negative viral test.No major issues at airports were flagged in an early morning call between airlines and U.S. government officials.The flights were full, Virgin Atlantic CEO Shai Weiss said on what he called a “major day of celebration,” while passenger volume was expected to remain high in coming weeks with the approach of Thanksgiving and Christmas. US land borders also reopened to non-essential travel yesterday.In Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez, across from the Texan city of El Paso, a line of about 20 people formed early before crossing and embracing family on the other side of the border, a Reuters witness said. One of the people hadn’t seen their relatives in El Paso since March 2020.“We thought they were going to tell us again that they had decided not to open it,” said Lorena Hernandez, stroking her grown-up daughter’s hair and smiling broadly after they were reunited in El Paso. “I said, if they don’t reopen, I’m going to take a plane.”Some inoculated Mexicans will not be able to enter the United States immediately if they received vaccines in Mexico that have not been approved by the World Health Organisation, such as China’s CanSino and Russia’s Sputnik V.Hundreds of migrants have arrived at Mexican border cities such as Tijuana in recent days, hoping the reset will make it easier to cross and seek US asylum, despite warnings from advocates that the re-opening is for people who have papers.US-bound travellers from Canada had to wait less than an hour at most border crossings yesterday morning with some longer lines at the Champlain, New York and Port Huron, Michigan crossings, according to the US Customs and Border Protection website.Marty Firestone, who owns Canadian travel insurance company Travel Secure, said October saw inquiries and purchases of travel insurance increase by 25% compared to the same month in 2019. “What you’ve got is tremendous pent up demand,” Firestone said yesterday. “When the announcement came out [that the US border was opening] they were like, ‘I’m out of here.’”The prospect of long queues, predicted by airport officials, did little to dent the enthusiasm of those preparing to be reunited with loved ones.Restrictions on non-US citizens were first imposed on air travellers from China in January 2020 by then-President Donald Trump and extended to dozens of other countries, without any clear metrics for how and when to lift them.