When US President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro announced the thaw in relations in 2014, many hoped that the deal would unlock trade with one of the world's last Communists outposts.  But a recent announcement from global shipping giant FedEx indicates the immediate future will see more tourism than trade.

FedEx announced it has amended its application to the US Department of transportation for Cuba services, dropping plans to fly cargo and packages in and out of Havana.  Instead, the company will use the much smaller resort smaller resort town of Veradero in the province of Matanzas.  Not only that. but FedEx no longer plans to fly the Boeing 757 it initially proposed for the Miami-Havana route - the company would use a single-engine Cessna 208 aircraft.  Veradero is about 110 kilometers away from Havana, and FedEx plans to simply truck the cargo into the capital.

Nor is FedEx in any particular hurry to get the new route up and running.  The application states flights would commence in January 2017, months after American Airlines plans to begin its first Cuba-bound flights.  FedEx competitor UPS hasn't even applied to go to Cuba yet, and is still assessing the situation to see if it's worth it.

But US passenger airlines are fighting to get into the new marketplace.  The US Department of Transportation has already told six US carriers that they can fly in and out of secondary Cuban airports.  Washington is waiting a few more weeks before apportioning flights to Havana after receiving three times more requests than the 20 available daily slots.