'It means the world': Families and friends reunite at UK's Heathrow

Familiesand friends were overjoyed at London'sHeathrowAirport on Monday after a travel rule change meant they couldreuniteafter 18 months of pandemic separation.

"Very, very excited. It means the world," said Sue Blake, as she waited to greet her son, daughter-in-law and grandson who had flown in from New York and who she last saw two years ago.

"It's a big chunk of his life and I'm so thrilled for him that he can come here," she said of the eight-year-old.

Watching thehugsandtearsin the arrivals hall,Heathrow's boss urged Britain to remove barriers to travel, not add to them, amid speculation that the government was poised to impose more rules.

"Let's just make it easier now for people to travel,"Heathrow's chief executive John Holland-Kaye told Reuters.

Britain, where the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has nearly reached 130,000, reopened its borders to large parts of the world on Monday, scrapping quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals from the European Union, excluding France, and the United States.