Charters for Everybody

Lest anyone doubt that it is determined to bring worldwide travel within the reach of most Americans, the Civil Aeronautics Board last week relaxed its rules for low-cost charter flights. The CAB waived the requirement that people who want to fly charters must belong to a club, a union or some other "affinity group." All that a traveler now has to do is sign up for a trip with a travel agent at least three months before departure and plunk down a 25% deposit. Agents must recruit a minimum of 40 people for each trip; all members of the group must fly both ways together and stay away at least seven days on charters in North America and ten days elsewhere. If a traveler changes his mind before takeoff and decides to scratch the trip, the new rules--which are scheduled to remain in effect on an experimental basis until Dec. 31, 1975 --give the agent some leeway for making refunds.

In easing the charter regulations, the CAB said that it was reacting to "an irresistible and understandable public demand for low-cost public transportation." It was also reacting to the political clout of the officers of charter airlines, some of whom have made large campaign contributions. Today U.S. charter flights are about 50% cheaper than regular excursion fares on transatlantic routes. Under the new ruling, they may catch up with some of the European charter operators, who have given a tremendous lift to mass travel by offering surprisingly low-cost package tours.

The profit-starved scheduled airlines have made no secret of the fact that they plan to fight back in the courts on the ground that the CAB exceeded its authority by failing to preserve the distinction between group and individually ticketed travel. They are backed up by two of the Republican members on the five-man CAB. If their legal gambit fails, the scheduled lines are likely to counter by lowering their own fares --and some of the big but money-short lines may be badly bumped.

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