Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. (MIAL) has reportedly served an eviction notice to debt-laden Kingfisher Airlines for defaulting on rent.

Two people with direct knowledge of the matter revealed that Kingfisher Airlines, which operates out of domestic Terminal 1A of the airport, was served the eviction notice around a week ago. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the two people added that MIAL had already begun the process of renting the Terminal 1A office to some other airline.

The reported development has cast new doubts on Kingfisher Airlines' ability to recommence operations.

Vijay Mallya-promoted debt-laden carrier owes the city airport operator 22 crore under a mix of overheads, which include parking and other navigational fees. The carrier has been failing to pay these dues for more than a year now.

When contacted, a Kingfisher official said, "We do not need all that space anyway since we have scaled down our operations. So, we were in the process of voluntarily handing over some of the rented space back to MIAL."

Till last year, Kingfisher Airlines used to operate nearly 400 domestic and international flights per day from different airports in India. But financial woes forced it to start scaling down its operations from November last year.

At the Mumbai airport, Kingfisher Airlines has close to 19,000 sq ft space, which it shares with national carrier Air India.