CHARGING CHARTERS

You’ll soon be able to use a credit card to pay for air charter service, which is often sold in conjunction with hotel and tour packages for inexpensive vacations, under new rules issued by the Transportation Department.

The regulations also will allow charter aircraft operators to participate directly in marketing the flights within seven days of departure and reduce some of the paperwork for charter operators.

The Transportation Department rejected revisions proposed in 1992 under the Bush administration that would have given charter operators wide disgression to change schedules by up to a week, raise prices or even cancel a flight on the day of departure due to lagging sales.

The rules, published with little fanfare last week in the Federal Register, take effect June 22.