Commercial Travel To Cuba Will Be Reality For First Time In 50 Years

DETROIT (WWJ) - There will be commercial air traffic between the United States and Cuba for the first time in five decades. The deal was signed Tuesday in Havana -- clearing the way for dozens of daily new flights as early as this fall.

President David Fishman of Cadillac Travel in Southfield expects his phones to be ringing soon. He says there has always been a lot of interest, but up until now, travel was only allowed for Humanitarian reasons.

"It's also kept the cost rather high for people to go so I have a feeling when they opened it up ... commercially for people to vacation without having the humanitarian community portion, I think the prices will drop and the traffic will go up dramatically to Cuba," said Fishman.

But he says he doesn't think it will be a bargain destination.

"I don't think it will be as cheap as Mexico - it will still be a little bit higher price more in some of the Caribbean island type pricing. I don't think - I can see a bigger drop in the air perhaps in some of the hotel rates and then of course with the high demand, at first, it will keep the pricing up a fair amount until they have more hotels and more frequency down there."

Expect a bit of a time travel as well says Fishman.

"You have to expect that you are going to see cars from the 50's and everything a little bit slower with technology. You certainly not going to see the fast food or the common Starbucks on a corner ... you are going to see old world Cuba that kind of stuck back in 1950."

Fishman says travelers are always looking for the exciting new destinations.