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Kuala Lumpur International Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Kuala Lumpur International Airport |- |align="center" colspan="4"|200px

|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|14L/32R |valign="top" align="right"|13,123 |valign="top" align="right"|4,000 |valign="top"|concrete |- !align="left" valign="top"|14R/32L |valign="top" align="right"|13,123 |valign="top" align="right"|4,000 |valign="top"|concrete

Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) is Malaysia's main international airport and is situated in Sepang district, in the south of the state of Selangor, about 50 km from the capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Built at a cost of some USD 3.5 billion, KLIA was inaugurated on 27 June 1998. Its slogan was Bringing the World to Malaysia and Malaysia to the World.

Contents

History

The planning of KLIA began in 1990 when the government decided that the existing Subang International Airport (now Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport) would not suffice to handle future demand. Malaysia's prime minister Mahathir bin Mohamad was a prime driver behind the project, which was seen as an important component of the Multimedia Super Corridor.

The decision was highly controversial on multiple grounds. The location over 70 km from Kuala Lumpur was viewed as inconvenient, the pricetag (and its ballooning from original estimates) was steep and critics alleged that, contrary to the government's assertions, Subang could still be expanded. Indeed, work on Subang continued simultaneously with KLIA's construction: Subang's new Terminal 3 was opened in December 1993 and Terminal 2 was refurbished in 1995, only three years before KLIA's opening.

The inauguration of the airport on 27 June 1998 — one week before the new Hong Kong International Airport — was marked with significant problems. Aerobridge and bay allocation systems broke down, queues formed throughout the airport, and baggage handling broke down badly, with lost bags and waits of over five hours. [link] Most of these issues were sorted out eventually, but the baggage handling system continued to be plagued with problems and was finally put up for a new complete replacement tender in 2006.

The airport also had to contend with the East Asian financial crisis that had started in 1997, which decimated passenger traffic in Malaysia and the region. Passenger growth was initially negative and airlines that had started flights to KLIA, including All Nippon Airways, British Airways and Northwest Airlines, soon terminated their services as unprofitable. The first phase of the airport was designed with a capacity of 25 million passengers per year, but 1999, the first full year of operations, saw only 13.2 million. "Passengers at Kuala Lumpur airport up despite fewer airlines", [link]. Asian Economic News, August 6, 2001. However, traffic did eventually increase and 21.1 million passengers were recorded in 2003 — although this, too, fell short of the original estimate of 35 million by this year.

Features

The runways and buildings cover an overall site of 100 square kilometres. There are 216 check-in counters, arranged in six check-in isles. The airport is the first in the world to use the Total Airport Management System (TAMS) — although the system was blamed for the airport's teething troubles by Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik. [link]

The airport has a control tower measuring at 425 feet (130 metres). At the time of construction, this was the tallest airport control tower in the world. Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok is aiming for a height of 433 feet. This would make the KLIA control tower the second-tallest control tower on the targeted completion of the Suvarnabhumi tower in 2006.

With its 75 ramp stands it is theoretically capable of handling 100 aircraft movements at any given time.

The Passenger Terminal Complex (PTC) was built with an emphasis on reflecting natural light from outside the building. Indeed, there is a huge expanse of glass throughout the building, and the spectacular roof has cut-outs for natural light to filter in. The PTC comprises three buildings - the Main Terminal Building, the Satellite Building and the Contact Pier. Besides the 80-room hotel at the Satellite Building, there is a 450-room 5-star Pan Pacific KLIA hotel a 5-10 minute (indoor) walk away. Regular (free) buggy services are also available to the Pan Pacific. Shopping spots are available on an area encompassing 85,000 square metres.

The Main Terminal Building and Satellite Building are connected by Aerotrain, a two-car driverless train that runs on elevated rail and under the taxiways at three to five minute intervals. The journey between terminals takes under two minutes, and each 250-person capacity train is able to transport 3,000 passengers per hour per direction.

KLIA was designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa, and developed by KL International Airport Berhad.

The airport is designed using the concept of Airport in the forest, in which it is surrounded by green space. This was intricately done with the co-operation of FRIM, the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia. An entire section of rainforest was transplanted, roots and all, from the jungle and put in the middle of the satellite building.

Connections to Kuala Lumpur are possible via KLIA Express train (RM35 one way), taxis (approximately RM60), and by bus.

The airport is the main hub for Malaysia Airlines, and one terminus of the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore air connection operated by both Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines.

The name Kuala Lumpur International Airport was previously used as an alternative name for the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) in Subang.

11 km from the main terminal is a low cost carrier terminal, the first to open in the region, which serves low cost carriers such as AirAsia.

Main components of KLIA

There are three components of KLIA which are:

Airlines

Airlines serving this airport include: {| border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 align="center" width="100%" |- |style="text-align:left;vertical-align:top;"|
Departure and Arrival building.
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Departure and Arrival building.

Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft at contact terminal
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Air Asia and Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft at contact terminal

Departure lounges are light and well-appointed. Through the departure lounge windows you can watch the aircraft you will be boarding.
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Departure lounges are light and well-appointed. Through the departure lounge windows you can watch the aircraft you will be boarding.

New Airlines in 2005-2007

Previous users

Incidents

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
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