[WASHINGTON] The cost of air travel is soaring while consumers aren't seeing much growth in their disposable income - but that isn't deterring an estimated 2.65 million American leisure travellers who are flying over the Labor Day weekend, the most since 2007, according to the travel organisation AAA.

AAA forecast that the weekend will mark a one per cent increase in leisure air travel compared to last year. Expedia reported an even-larger jump in demand, saying that Labor Day travellers had booked 20 per cent more domestic and international air tickets through its site than they did last year. The increased demand for holiday weekend flights concludes a strong summer for air travel, even as airfare continues to rise and the consumer recovery from the recession remains slow.

Airline ticket prices are notoriously volatile, but they have been steadily on the rise recently. Air travellers shelled out an average of US$88 more for a domestic round-trip flight in the first half of 2014 than they did during the same period four years before, according to data from Airlines Reporting Corp. And they're not just paying the sticker price of the ticket. On average, air travellers paid US$9 more in ancillary costs - baggage fees, on-board food and beverages, frequent flyer deals, and other costs - for each of their trips in 2013 than they did six years before, according to data from IdeaWorks.