While serving as Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), which regulated commercial airline fares, in 1977-1978, Kahn (a self-described "good liberal Democrat") oversaw the deregulation of commercial air fares. As one analyst put it, Kahn "set to work with . . . other progressives" including Senator Edward Kennedy, future Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader to "dismantle anti-consumer cartels that had been sustained by government regulation." At the same time the CAB was disbanded, as deregulation of commercial air fares made the agency no longer necessary. This is one of the very few examples of a regulatory agency deregulating itself out of existence.