Helicopter Commute

$200 daily helicopter shuttles to and from work demonstrate that Wall Street is up and running again after the recession and plenty of traffic jams. “Liberty Helicopters Inc. is offering to fly weary commuters from New Jersey to Manhattan for about $200 a day, saving them 14 hours in traffic a week and signaling that Wall Street may have seen the worst of the recession. As many as six people at a time will travel above the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge during the trip of about 20 miles (32 kilometers) from Port Monmouth, New Jersey, to landing pads at West 30th Street and Pier 6 near Wall Street. Weekend service starts tonight and weekday runs begin next month. Liberty has already been approached by 150 potential clients after about a month of advertising, Patrick Day, a pilot and vice president of charter marketing, said in an interview in the cabin of a twin-engine Dauphin at the carrier’s base in Linden, New Jersey. The interest may reflect how far Wall Street has bounced back, said Robert Grotell, an independent transportation consultant in Port Jefferson, New York.”