The Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) on Thursday sent a notice to Vijay Mallya

Source ;ET:1 DEC, 2011, 11.02PM IST,
MUMBAI: The Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) on Thursday sent a notice to Vijay Mallya promotedKingfisher Airlines to either pay up the dues the airline owes the operator of the second busiest airport in the country or face the possibility of shutting operations from the city. 

"From Saturday, Kingfisher will be put on a cash and carry mode if it wants to continue operating out of Mumbai airport," a MIAL spokesperson said. 

Kingfisher has about Rs 90 crore in unpaid dues to the MIAL as operating charges. 

Cheques written by the airline to the MIAL over the past three to four months for clearance of dues have "bounced" according to the airport officials. 

The operator has asked the airline to pay Rs 50lakh to Rs 60 lakh per day, half of which will go towards operating costs and other half for the recoveries of dues, the MIAL spokesperson said. 

Kingfisher has 42 flights per day both for domestic and international operations. 

"If the airline does not pay up then we have the option of going to he civil aviation regulator to explore which all airlines have sought extra slots from Mumbai as if the airline does not pay up it will be asked to stop services from here," he added. 

Kingfisher in a statement assured its guests that there will no disrutpion of operations from Mumbai and normal schedules will be adhered to. 

Kingfisher is facing an acute financial crisis with the airline announcing pulling out 54 of its daily flights in November. It has troubles with its leasing companies on unpaid lease rentals; the Airports Authority of India too had put Kingfisher on cash and carry and Mallya's attempts to get in money as working capital loans from banks, about Rs 400 crore are not heeded to currently.

Kingfisher employees have not been paid salaries for the month of October till now, nor has the management conveyed to the employees the status of the payment schedules for salaries. 

About 100 pilots have left the airline or are in the process of leaving the company on account of an uncertain future if they linger on. 

There is a viability report that SBI Caps will be presenting to the lenders shortly based on which a decision by the banks will be taken to further capitalise Kingfisher or not. 

Kingfisher has accumulated losses of over Rs 4000 crore. It restructured Rs 6450 crore of its debt this year to pare interest costs but analysts feel still the interest outflow of Rs 900 crore per year and cash burn for the airline on a daily basis is beyond sustenance levels.