新應用助你找到便宜機票

A new app promises to save travellers money by pinpointing the cheapest days of the year to take a flight.

一款新的手機應用能確切指出一年中乘坐航班最划算的時間，從而爲旅客省錢。

Hopper, available in the App Store since yesterday, claims to analyse “billions” of prices before identifying the cheapest time to travel on thousands of routes. Hopper believes it can save fliers 40 per cent, on average.

這款名爲Hopper的手機應用，自1月28日起在蘋果應用商店（the App Store）開放下載。Hopper聲稱，在數千條航線中找出最划算的時間點前，會分析數十億條航班價格數據。Hopper認爲，該款應用平均可以爲旅客節省40%的花費。

Users can even request real-time alerts, ensuring they’re notified when a cheaper offer on their selected journey becomes available – and told if the price is about to go up.

用戶甚至可以設定實時提醒服務，確保如果其選定的行程有更便宜的報價或及機票價格將要上漲時，他們會收到通知。

This, the company says, is what makes it stand out from the competition. "A lot of the flight alert products others are offering are almost a daily digest," Patrick Surry, chief data scientist at Hopper, told Mashable. “The real-time side of it is really important."

該公司說道，這就是Hopper得以從競爭中脫穎而出的法門所在。“很多航班提醒產品基本就是每日信息摘要，”Hopper的首席數據專家帕特里克·薩里（Patrick Surry）向Mashable表示：“實時提醒這方面是非常重要的。”

To use the free app, travellers must first enter a route. They are then shown a calendar, with days colour-coded depending how cheap it is to fly.

使用這款免費應用，旅客首先須輸入一條路線，之後就會看到日曆，上面用不同顏色標註着該航線不同時間的價格便宜程度。

A search for flights from London to Barcelona, for example, suggested that the most expensive days to travel this year are currently Sunday, February 15 – the day after Valentine’s – and July 27, when travellers can expect to pay more than $300 (£199) per person.

例如，搜索從倫敦到巴塞羅那的航班，結果顯示，今年價格最高的日期是7月27日和2月15日，這天恰好是週日，又是情人節的後一天。這兩天每位旅客將要支付超過300美元（約199英鎊）的費用。