AVIATION: The Body Brokers

Even veteran Civil Aeronautics Board investigators were a bit bemused when, during a recent spot check of a group on a bargain-price charter flight from New York's J.F.K. Airport, they found an 81-year-old woman brandishing a youth-fare airline ticket. The incident reflects the widespread abuse of the regulations governing cut-rate charters, especially on the North Atlantic run, by so-called "charter consolidators," also known as "body brokers." Recently the CAB began a drive to clip their wings, and it has forced many out of business. In the process, it has stranded thousands of tourists who held return tickets that had...

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