The minister responsible for the UK’s finances is considering an increase in passenger duty for premium seats, according to reports.

Chancellor Jermy Hunt is preparing a budget statement to be presented to the House of Commons tomorrow (Wednesday).  The minister under pressure to raise the amount of revenue brought in, but without impacting too heavily on regular working people.

According to a story in Monday’s Daily Telegraph, the fee is set to increase, despite the Chancellor’s earlier promise not to impose any more taxes on aviation.

READ: UK shadow aviation minister eyes levelling up for regional aviation

While information in the annual budget was traditionally kept a closely guarded secret until the speech was made, in recent years Chancellors have taken to making off-the-record briefings in the run-up to the budget with lobby journalists and business leaders in order to gauge how policies might be received.

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Air passenger duty is a tax on flights departing the UK. It is a levy unique to Britain with the rate already set to rise in the UK from April 1. The Chancellor set out a 2.5 percent rise in last year’s budget in order to keep the prices in line with the retail price index.

Unsurprisingly, the tax has not gone down well with airlines or airports. Ryanair’s CCO Jason McGuinness, told the Daily Mirror that many airports outside of London are being ‘hamstrung’ as the tax limits growth in flight capacity.

“London will be always fine, but where UK APD is doing untold damage is to the regional UK airports.” he cautioned. “I think that’s going to get worse over the next number of years, predominantly because European airports are becoming significantly more competitive.”