Kuala Lumpur International Airport - Terminals

Terminals

The Passenger Terminal Complex (PTC) was built with an emphasis on allowing natural light into the building. Thus, 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 10-minute (indoor) walk away. Shopping spots are available in an area encompassing 85,000 square metres. Currently, the retail space at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport stands at 63,644 square metres (685,060 sq ft). The airport operator plans to increase the retail space to 103,251 square metres (1,111,380 sq ft), an 62.2% increase in retail space. Malaysia Airports's retail arm Eraman will boost retail shops to 277 from 242 and add more food and beverage outlets to 99 from 88 presently.

As there are international flights operating out from the airport, therefore terminals of the airport are equipped with immigration processing facilities and security scanning for all passengers including domestic passengers. The Satellite terminal handles most of the international flights, while the main terminal building's contact pier handles domestic traffic, regional international flights and international flights routed to other hubs within Malaysia. Malaysia Airlines operate from both terminals, where main terminal building's contact pier is their preferred terminal for domestic flights. Conversely, low cost carries such as AirAsia Group of Airlines, Tiger Airways and Cebu Pacific operates domestic and international flights out of the low cost carrier terminal.

The initial passenger growth was below average due to Asian Financial Crisis and the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 and the airport failed to reach its target capacity of 25 million passengers per annum (before the inclusion of low cost carrier terminal) by 2004. However, the recovery of Malaysia's economy boosted Kuala Lumpur International Airport's passenger movements, and the airport saw significant growth in traffic, hitting the 25 million passenger mark in 2007. In January 2008, the airport saw a growth of 8.3% in aircraft movements and 7.7% in passenger traffic to 2.17 million in January 2008 from 2.02 million in the same period last year.