WASHINGTON -- Airlines have had trouble raising their prices to offset high fuel costs, but the government is still noticing a trend toward higher fares.

Airport Delays

Number crunchers at the Department of Transportation report that airline ticket prices during the last three months of 2003 were up an average 1.5 percent from the same period a year earlier.

It was the second straight increase in the department's quarterly Air Travel Price Index.

Officials say the United State's largest jump in fares was seen in Maui, Hawaii, where prices during the fourth quarter of last year were up 23.2 percent from the year before.

Milwaukee had the biggest drop in fares, down 6.2 percent.