If you're planning to travel in the coming months, you may want to consider putting your airfare money down sooner than later.  The air traffic data being reported by the largest domestic carriers for the month of April indicates a rebounding travel industry – which likely means airfare increases are on the way.  With load factors from most U.S. airlines growing year-over-year in April (due in large part to capacity cuts and cheap airfare sales), domestic carriers may trim the number of fare sales and other discounts they've been using to stimulate demand. In fact, April saw a couple of attempts by airlines to increase fares for the first time in 8 months.

And airfare is not the only travel expense that's apparently on the rise.  The Las Vegas Sun reports that MGM Mirage, the Strip's largest casino operator, has reported increased demand for hotel rooms – "high enough to warrant an increase in room rates, which have plummeted during the downturn." 

The Sun reports that, "in January, MGM Mirage’s hotels had an occupancy rate in the high 70s —a respectable number for many major cities but poor for Las Vegas,where hotels have historically operated at higher than 90 percentoccupancy. That figure has risen each month this year, reaching 95percent in March and 97 percent in April, in line with a year ago,before business worsened."

MGM Mirage will roll out its rate increases over the next few weeks.  However, in the meantime,  AAA says that Memorial Day hotel rates should "be between 7 percent and 12 percent lower than last year, with travelers spending an average of $104 to $142 per night."

Here's some more travel news you can use:

* Each month the U.S. Department of Transportation issues it's Air Travel Consumer Report which provides data on a number of topics that are relevant to frequent travelers, including airline on-time performance, mis-handled baggage, passenger "bumps" due to oversold flights, airline customer complaints, and a lot of other telling facts.  Check it out.

* The number of vacationing Americans will be down this summer, accordingto a new AP-Gfk Poll, and a third of Americans surveyed said they havealready canceled at least one trip this year because of financialconcerns.

* The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) has issued a press release offering advice for travelers heading into the busy summer travel season.  One piece of advice the ASTA failed to menion: track your flight and hotel prices on Yapta.com.  It could save you a bundle.