Research shows that the optimum time to book your airline ticket is eight weeks before travelling

.... An economist, Makoto Watanabe, has calculated that the optimum time to buy an airline ticket is eight weeks in advance of flying.

His yet-to-be-published findings also suggests that airline tickets are cheaper when purchased in the afternoons, rather than the mornings, prompting him to speculate that airlines are assuming business travellers will book their tickets at work in the morning on the company account, whereas leisure travellers are more likely to book from home in the afternoon.

The eight-week result stems from work published in the latest edition of the Economic Journal in which Watanabe and his colleague, Marc Möller, offer intimidating equations such as ∏A = gUG + min(k - g, (1 - g)(1 - r)) as part of the complex formula, where ∏ equals profit, that determines advance ticket purchases.

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