US drops travel ban after more than 600 days: Vaccinated tourists from dozens of countries arriving today
travel ban ended at midnight Eastern time and people from dozens of countries begin flooding in, more than 600 days since they were barred from entry.
That’s more than 86 weeks. Nearly 20 months. Enough time for grandchildren to be born, or for couples to lose track of the number of nights they fell asleep to Facetime calls with their partner. Long enough to lose hope in a U.S. vacation or honeymoon after having to delay plans over and over again.
Lines began forming at the Canadian and Mexican borders well before daybreak, and eager travelers boarded flights from Europe, including dueling departures from London’s Heathrow. The U.S.-Mexican border is typically the world’s busiest border crossing, with about 350 million people crossing annually.
they are 18 or older, show proof of full vaccination. Travelers entering the U.S. on land or by ferry for nonessential reasons must show proof of vaccination.
It’s a long-awaited moment for travelers from more than 30 countries. The U.S. initiated its first COVID-related travel ban on China in February 2020. By the end of March, it added travel bans on the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iran, and 26 countries in the European Schengen Area. Brazil, India and South Africa were later added to the list.
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► US drops travel ban Nov. 8:Expect bottlenecks at airports under strict entry rules
New York readies to welcome tourists
Times Square was relatively quiet Monday morning as the city that never sleeps prepared to welcome vaccinated international tourists back to the U.S.
Around 8:45 am, the Times Square Alliance unfurled a “Welcome Back World” sign on the Red Steps in Times Square.
The Steps, considered an iconic New York landmark for tourists, had about 90,000 people walk by them each day before the pandemic, according to the Times Square Alliance, the not-for-profit group that maintains it. At the pandemic’s worst, that number dropped to 30,000, and New York businesses hope the flood of tourists will boost their finances.
TJ Witham, the vice president of communications for the Times Square Alliance, told USA TODAY the alliance chose the red steps as it is an “iconic meeting place” for people visiting the Big Apple.
— Morgan Hines, USA TODAY
Mexican border busy
At the El Paso-Juarez land border’s Bridge of the Americas, passenger vehicles stretched about a mile into Juárez as thousands waited to cross. Dozens more walked over the Paso del Norte bridge, visas in hand. The border had been closed to tourists or people visiting family, although a wide variety of essential workers had been permitted to cross during the closure.
During the closure, Mexican nationals holding tourist cards were banned from traveling over the land border — although air travel between points in the interior of both countries never ceased.
The crossing reopened at just after midnight Eastern time and at 6 a.m. Eastern, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported no significant crossing delays at either the Mexican or Canadian borders.
Alicia Tagle, 60, clutched a clear plastic folder full of documents. She said she was going to request an I-94 permit to see her sister in Colorado. Tonight she’d stay with an aunt who lives near Montana Avenue and Raynor Street in El Paso.
“I am so happy,” she said. “My aunt is just waiting for us to call her when we cross.”
Cross-border traffic of essential travelers between El Paso and Juárez reached nearly 800,000 crossings of passenger vehicles in August, according to the Border Region Modeling Project at the University of Texas at El Paso.
“Nobody anticipated that this pandemic would last as long as it has, in terms of travel restrictions,” said Hector Mancha, U.S. Customs and Border Protection director of field operations in El Paso. “People have not crossed over and visited with family in going on two years… Unfortunately, the pandemic has kept us from (reopening). I think it’s overdue.”
— Lauren Villagran, El Paso Times
Dueling takeoffs from London to New York
The first passengers headed from London to New York since the travel ban lifted at midnight Monday are in the air.
British Airways Flight 1 and Virgin Atlantic Flight 3 took off at 3:51 a.m. ET on parallel runways from London’s Heathrow Airport, according to flight trackers FlightAware and Flightradar24.
The airlines are rivals but teamed up to commemorate the reopening of foreign travel to the U.S.
Giles English,co-founder of luxury British watchmaker Bremont tweeted a photo of the takeoff from his window seat on the British Airways flight.
The flights are due to arrive at the John F. Kennedy International Airport before lunchtime in New York. British Airways CEO Sean Doyle, who repeatedly pushed for an end to the travel ban, is on the airline’s first flight to New York.
— Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY
Anticipation at airports
Ahead of the British Airways first flight arrival, family members waited in the Terminal 7 arrivals area at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, which is decked out with balloons and New York symbols including the back half of a taxicab filled with a floral arrangement and NYC-themed cookies.
Louise Erebara, from Danbury, Connecticut, arrived at the airport with her family early to welcome her sister and her sister’s husband after 730 days apart.
“It’s everything, we can’t thank British Airways enough,” a choked-up Erebara said, noting the airline paid for her relatives’ flight. “They want to reunite ex-pats and they’re doing it.”
Headed to Disney World
For UK resident Emma Barbour and her family, the border reopening means one thing: Florida’s Disney World with their 10-year-old daughter.
They usually come annually, but put those plans on hold after 2019, and rescheduled this trip three times as they waited for the Biden administration to lift the ban. Barbour, 41, said the airports were busy but staff seemed cheerful despite long lines.
“We honestly wouldn’t travel if we felt unsafe or nervous, we are fully vaccinated and will wear our masks. I definitely won’t let it tarnish our time there by worrying about it,” she said from Paris as they waited to board their Atlanta-bound flight.
— Eve Chen, USA TODAY
The British are coming
Sam Nagy and his family are headed to Florida, to the Universal Orlando Resort, their first trip to the U.S. since 2018. He said lines at the Manchester, England, airport were smooth, raising his hopes for the family vacation they’ve rescheduled four times already.
“That once-a-year trip is so much more to us than just a vacation, it honestly feels like it’s ‘home’ as cliché as that may be to say,” said Nagy.
Paul Richards is flying from London to New York on Virgin Atlantic and described the airport scene as chaotic, with long check-in lines this morning. He is headed to New York City for vacation to celebrate his son’s 21st birthday.
“They are working really hard to get people through, however, some passengers hadn’t completed the attestation forms or just stood in the wrong queue,’’ he said. “Once through check in, security was pretty slick.’’
— Dawn Gilbertson, USA TODAY
Scattered delays
Julien Yomtov of Paris said he faced several frustrating delays leaving France — first at security and then again when the plane’s departure was delayed an hour. He said he’s excited to get back to Las Vegas, traveling via Los Angeles, to play in the World Series of Poker, which he normally does annually with his brother.
“The experience was stressful because the employees are (not) ready to welcome so many travelers,” he told USA TODAY via Whatsapp. “Hope in LAX it will be easier.”
— Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY
Families begin to reunite
Simone Thies of Cologne, Germany, is flying in to see her fiancé, who she has seen just twice since the ban began– once during a trip to Aruba in June, and again when he visited her in Germany in August. Before those trips, they had been separated a year. Thies stayed overnight in a Düsseldorf hotel near the airport before catching her Delta flight, headed ultimately to Lincoln, Nebraska.
“I want to avoid stress because everything is so exciting,” she said.
Getting through the line at the Düsseldorf airport was quick — “5 minutes at most,” she said — but she had one more stop in Paris before crossing the Atlantic.
There, she had to show her passport, proof of vaccination and results of her negative coronavirus test. Even as the first person in line, the wait took about 20 minutes because one employee was still learning which documents to check, she said.
“The line is very long, but (I’m) done for now,” she said before departing.
— Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY
Changes affect most air travelers
Arriving in Atlanta from Korea, Seongbin Woo, 26, said his travel experience for his first U.S. visit was “not that smooth,” largely because he had to rush to get test results back before departing Seoul. Although Korean nationals were not banned from travel to the U.S., anyone arriving as of Monday must follow new protocols, including showing proof of vaccination.
“I heard that everyone here is not wearing masks, so it’s good for me because I am tired of masks,” he said. He added he is still concerned about getting sick.
— Eve Chen, USA TODAY
Lines begin at the Canada-US border
Windsor, Ontario, Mayor Drew Dilkens said a Canadian travel requirement – having negative polymerase chain reaction test that can cost $200 – is likely to prevent many who want to drive from Ontario to Michigan from doing so.
He explained the testing provision doesn’t make sense for day trippers nor does it provide the kind of health assurance the government thinks it does because someone could easily contract the virus during their visit.
He wants to see that requirement lifted.
— Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press
How did the international travel ban start?
The travel ban barred most foreign nationals who had been in the listed counties in the past 14 days from entering the U.S., regardless of vaccination status. The country also cut off nonessential travel across the U.S. land borders with Mexico and China in March 2020.
It wasn’t until September that the White House announced that it would end the travel ban for fully vaccinated travelers – months after many other nations reopened to U.S. tourists.
The new U.S. entry requirements, which went into effect Monday, require foreign air passengers to test negative for the virus before boarding a plane to the country and, if they are 18 or older, show proof of full vaccination. Travelers entering the U.S. on land or by ferry for nonessential reasons also need to show proof of vaccination.
As airports and border crossings get adjusted to the new travel rules, international travelers should prepare for lines.
The first flight from a country listed the travel ban is set to fly into Chicago from Dublin just before 7 a.m. CT, according to flight tracker Flight Aware and flight-data firm OAG.
Plenty more will follow; there are more than 2 million international flights scheduled to arrive in the U.S. next month, compared to just 728,820 in December of 2020, according to OAG and Flight Aware.
— Bailey Schulz, USA TODAY
► US drops travel ban:Expect bottlenecks at airports under strict entry rules