The first commercial flight between the United States and Cuba in more than half a century landed in the central city of Santa Clara on Wednesday morning, reestablishing regular air service that was severed at the height of the Cold War.

Cheers broke out in the cabin of JetBlue Flight 387 as the plane, which departed from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., touched down. Passengers — mostly airline executives, U.S. government officials and journalists, with a sprinkling of Cuban American families and others — were given gift bags with Cuban cookbooks, commemorative luggage tags and Cuban flags.

The arrival opens a new era of U.S.-Cuba travel, with about 300 flights a week connecting the United States with an island cut off from most Americans by the 55-year-old trade embargo against Cuba and a formal ban on U.S. citizens engaging in tourism on the island.

The resumption of commercial travel between the countries is one of the most important steps in President Obama’s two-year-old policy of normalizing relations with Cuba. Historians disagree on the exact date of the last commercial flight, but it appears to have been after Cuba banned incoming flights during the Cuban missile crisis in October 1962.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry said on Twitter that the previous commercial flight was in 1961.

Neta Rodriguez, 62, who was born in Havana and lives in South Florida, checked in Wednesday morning with her daughter, son-in-law and three grandsons for a trip to see family in Santa Clara and Havana.

More than the historic nature of the flight, she said, she appreciated the $200 ticket price and the ability to book online instead of visiting a charter office.

U.S. travel to Cuba is on track to triple this year, to more than 300,000 visitors, in the wake of the 2014 declaration of detente.

Commercial flights are expected to significantly increase the number of American visitors, although it is not clear by how much. Many of the air routes are used by expensive charter flights that are largely expected to be discontinued with the resumption of regularly scheduled service from the United States.

Cuban officials insist that the continuing U.S. ban on tourism will limit the effect of commercial flights, but some experts say that the drastic reduction in the difficulty of flying to Cuba could turn the surge in U.S. visitors into a tidal wave. Americans are allowed to visit the island for “people-to-people” cultural and educational visits, among other reasons.