新应用助你找到便宜机票

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

一款新的手机应用能确切指出一年中乘坐航班最划算的时间，从而为旅客省钱。

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.

这款名为Hopper的手机应用，自1月28日起在苹果应用商店（the App Store）开放下载。Hopper声称，在数千条航线中找出最划算的时间点前，会分析数十亿条航班价格数据。Hopper认为，该款应用平均可以为旅客节省40%的花费。

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.

用户甚至可以设定实时提醒服务，确保如果其选定的行程有更便宜的报价或及机票价格将要上涨时，他们会收到通知。

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."

该公司说道，这就是Hopper得以从竞争中脱颖而出的法门所在。“很多航班提醒产品基本就是每日信息摘要，”Hopper的首席数据专家帕特里克·萨里（Patrick Surry）向Mashable表示：“实时提醒这方面是非常重要的。”

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.

使用这款免费应用，旅客首先须输入一条路线，之后就会看到日历，上面用不同颜色标注着该航线不同时间的价格便宜程度。

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，搜索从伦敦到巴塞罗那的航班，结果显示，今年价格最高的日期是7月27日和2月15日，这天恰好是周日，又是情人节的后一天。这两天每位旅客将要支付超过300美元（约199英镑）的费用。