“We know people who were paying $3,500 a month for a studio apartment, now paying $1,200 sharing a house with two people in the Hudson Valley,” Wiesenthal said. “They’re renting things that are less expensive and that’s enabling them to fly.”
The exodus has created what Wiesenthal calls “synthetic suburbs” in areas not normally accessible for daily trips to the city. And he’s tweaked his offerings to accommodate the sudden interest in vacation home-to-office commuting. Last month, he started selling $965 monthly commuter passes between Manhattan and the Hamptons, which grant their users one-way flights for an additional $295 each. September’s 200 passes sold out in a day, and October’s are gone too.
About 35% of clients commuting to the city from vacation homes make round-trip flights on the same day, with nine out of 10 bringing no luggage, suggesting they’re coming in just to work, Wiesenthal said.
While he predicts demand for monthly commuter passes will soon decline, Wiesenthal said his flights from New York to Miami and Aspen -- which start next month -- are nearly full.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.