The US drastically restricted journey from a number of international locations, together with UK, in March 2020.
New York:
As quickly as she spots her son Liam at New York’s JFK airport, Alison Henry runs in direction of him and provides him a protracted hug, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I just can’t believe it, two and half years!” she says after stepping off a British Airways flight from London, because the United States reopened to vaccinated guests Monday.
“It’s just so emotional, overwhelming,” Henry, 63, tells AFP.
She and 31-year-old Liam have spoken each week for the reason that US drastically restricted journey from a number of international locations, together with the UK, firstly of the pandemic in March 2020.
“(But) this human connection, when it’s real and in front of you, is what I missed the most,” says Liam, who has lived in Brooklyn for a number of years, his eyes glistening above his face masks.
He has numerous locations to indicate his mother and father and grandmother Patricia — who did not hesitate to make the journey regardless of being nearly 88 years previous — however largely they only plan to spend time collectively.
“Every day we have been watching the news, waiting and waiting for America to open up,” stated mum Alison. They booked their tickets as quickly because the announcement was made official final month.
At terminal seven inside JFK, the primary passengers off BA’s first flight for the reason that borders reopened are greeted with clapping and cheering and company-colored pink, white and blue balloons.
They additionally obtain cookies within the form of a yellow taxi, a manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, three symbols of the metropolis that’s determined to welcome again vacationers to spice up its ravaged economic system.
Businessmen are among the many first to disembark.
“It’s great to be back. It’s fantastic,” a number of of them say to ready TV crews.
Next come the passengers desirous to reunite with family members.
They embrace a grandmother who has by no means seen her grandson earlier than, a person who waits with a bouquet of pink roses for an in depth buddy he has not seen for 11 years, and an aunt who finds her two nieces and plans an enormous household reunion dinner tonight.
After 730 days of separation, Jill Chambers is lastly in a position to hug her sister and nephews. “I’m so happy,” she repeats again and again, her eyes pink.
‘Milestone’
Before discovering Chambers, her sister Louise Erebara had warned: “I’m going to cry like a hysteric.”
“It’s been terrible not knowing when we were going to see them again due to Covid, not knowing if the borders were ever going to open,” Erebara tells AFP.
For Max, a younger man in a rush to reunite with family and friends, the separation was additionally “very, very hard.”
“We communicated on Zoom, but it’s not the same as in real life,” he instructed AFP earlier than speeding in direction of the exit.
To mark the event, British Airways gave the flight the distinguished quantity “BA1,” which belonged to the Concorde when it was nonetheless flying between London and New York.
The journey was “fantastic,” says BA CEO Sean Doyle, making his first go to to New York for the reason that starting of final 12 months.
BA by no means utterly stopped its providers all through the pandemic, however the first flight of the reopening is “a very important milestone,” he tells AFP.
Transatlantic flights are important to the corporate’s funds.
“Our sense is that demand should be getting back there by 2023-24,” Doyle provides.
But for not less than one passenger, the reopening wasn’t a second of celebration.
“I’ve had a nice two years of not having to fly anywhere,” says Tom Hargreaves, among the many first enterprise class passengers to get off the airplane.
“And now I have to start doing that again.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)