私人飛機掙錢新招：“空駛航段”特價出售

這兩年，明星購買私人飛機的新聞不斷出現，而大部分普通人只有艷羨的份兒。最近，英國一家私人飛機公司推出特價服務，向普通乘客出售私人飛機空駛航段的座位，讓普通人也有機會享受私人飛機旅程。

"Empty legs" are private jet flights where there happens to be nobody on-board, at least not until you come in. Private jet charter firms, realizing that their aircraft have to return to base at some point and often do so without the human cargo they have just ferried somewhere swanky, have taken to offering these return "empty" legs for cut-price rates. They get to make some extra money out of someone's one-way trip, and the consumer gets a cut-price private jet experience – about which more later – and the flexibility to just show up 15 minutes before take-off, get right on board and fly. The one downside, of course, is that empty legs are one-way and you have to get home again

Empty legs指沒有乘客在機上的私人飛機航班，即“空駛私人航班”，當然，這是在你登機之前。私人飛機承包公司發現，他們的飛機在把乘客送到某個目的地之后有時會空駛飛回基地，于是，他們決定特價出售這些空駛航段。這樣，他們可以在某個大人物的單程旅途中額外掙到錢，消費者則可以特價體驗一次私人飛機旅程，而且可以在飛機起飛前15分鐘到達機場，上了飛機就能起飛。唯一的弊端就是，這些空駛航段都是單程的，你還得自己買票回家。

The big question, then: do you get free champagne once you are on board? Yes! Catering will be available to you as it would be to a regular charter customer. There won't be flight attendants but you will have two pilots and one of them will serve you drinks, champagne and snacks.

重點來了：享受特價私人飛機航班時有免費香檳嗎？當然！你會享受到常規包機乘客一樣的餐食服務。機上沒有空乘人員，不過會有兩名飛行員，其中一位會為你提供飲料、香檳及零食。

Result! Which leaves us with the even bigger question: if you happen to be flying on, say, Rod Stewart's private jet, will they tell you that it's his? No, they don't reveal that. Obviously, though, they do belong to famous people. (Source: Guardian)

最后，還有一個更重要的問題：如果你乘坐的碰巧是，比如Rod Stewart的私人飛機，機上人員會告訴你嗎？不，他們不會透露此類信息。雖然這些私人飛機的確是屬于那些名人的。

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）