OdiE From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 1641 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 2542 times:
There are several good places to spot if you are in the airside area. Depending what time are you arriving into KUL and leaving KUL, but the peak hours are from 7 am to 10 am and from 8 pm to midnight. In the satellite building itself (you can only go there if you are a international passenger), at the end of the satellite arms, there is a second floor where you can spot, or near the escalators that will take you up to the premium lounges. Or if you are a premium passenger, I believe that all lounges at KUL have a view of the tarmac. The good thing about KUL is that it has a glass theme, thus, you can virutally see anywhere from inside the building. Even the aerobridge is made out of glass.
If you are in the Main Terminal Building, head place where you board the Aerotrain. This will allow you to see the whole Satellite terminal itself plus a view of KUL's two runway.
Hkg_clk From Hong Kong, joined Jan 2001, 999 posts, RR: 2 Reply 2, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 2536 times:
Thank you OdiE.
I have yet to book my tickets so I'm not sure what time I'll be at KUL, but it will be a transit during flights between HKG and LHR. (My travel agent has just suggested MH as an alternative to what I have taken in the past (SQ)). It will probably be sometime in July/August. What time does it get dark in those months?
By the way, are any of the photos in the airliners.net database from any of the spots you mentioned above?
Thanks.
See my homepage for a comprehensive guide to spotting and photography at HKG
Ryanair!!! From Singapore, joined Mar 2002, 4652 posts, RR: 27 Reply 3, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 2524 times:
Malaysia is like almost the rest of SE Asia, summer all year round so the times of the sunset doesn't vary much. Between 1855 - 1910... usually.
The second level at the satellite terminal normally has cushioned benches so have fun looking for them. Just walk along the corridor and past the airline lounges until the corridor goes no further, that is where the rest areas are.
If you are flying business or first, all the airline lounges have views of the tarmac. However, I cannot stress anymore on how splendidly enormous the MAS Golden Lounge is, absolutely perfect for plane spotting in pure comfort. I am a fan...
However, First and Biz Class aside, spotting anywhere at the airport is good. As the runways are situated rather a distance away from the terminal buildings, you cannot really hear the planes take off... mainly also the holding points of rwy32 L&R are so far from anywhere! Only good thing is watching the planes land on rwy32R. 32L touchdown point is far from civilisation and by the time you see the plane, it would have already slowed down to taxiing speed.
Both MAS LHR flights leave at 1100H and 2355H (MH 4 and 2 respectively) so you would see a fair amount of traffic during your transit for any of those flights. But don't expect Changi or CLK's kind of traffic, its Kuala Lumpur we are talking about. Their peak period means a handful of MH jets and the hourly SQ/MH SIN shuttle. Plus the occassional CX, TG, GF and AI aircraft.
Fly MAS! They have never disappointed me before.
Cheers
Ryan
Welcome to my starry one world alliance, a team in the sky!
Vh-daq From Hong Kong, joined Nov 2001, 182 posts, RR: 2 Reply 4, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 2520 times:
Hk_CLK
KL when i was there in the afternoon during the summer holidays when its peak season, there was not exactly a lot happening, or was it all out the back!!!!
anyways thats just my experience, you're better off to go through another airport even though Kuala airport is a very very nice airport- spesh the comfy seats in transit
OdiE From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 1641 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 2523 times:
Hkg_clk: Routing via KUL is a really change from SIN. If you like a quiet, but big airport, KUL is the place! This airport was only completed in 1998, making it less than 5 years old. MAS have 18 flights a week to London. Twice daily departing at 10:45 am as Mh 4 and 11:40 pm as MH 2 and 4 times weekly (on Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday) at 9:00 am as MH 8. If you are flying in from Hong Kong, you would probably take the MH 2. But, MH 2 is somesort of a premium flight, where you need to pay more to fly with that flight owing to its popularity. Like ryanair!!! said, if you are departing to London, you are actually departing during the peak hours. Only flights to around SE Asia departs during the off-peak or to the Middle East. During the night, you can see airlines like Qatar Airways, KLM, Emirates, Japan Airlines, Lauda Air, Thai, China Southern parked there and probably a whole lot of others.
Although Kuala Lumpur is situated a little above the equator, it does have some difference in the daylight hours. In June/July, Malaysia get an hour more of daylight more than December/January and that's it. In June/July, the sun would set around 7:30 pm and rise again around 7:00 am.
The purpose for building the runways far away from each other is to cater for the future which would allow aircraft to have simultaneous landing and take off in the same runway. If they build it too close, like in Heathrow, one runway can only be used for take-off and the other one for landings.
KUL was voted as the second best airport in the world last year with HKG/CLK being the first. So, if you fly via KUL, you would be visiting both the world first and second best airport!
Airchabum From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2001, 769 posts, RR: 12 Reply 7, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 4 days 7 hours ago) and read 2485 times:
Hi Hkg clk
I transited thru KUL about a year ago between LHR and PER. All the longhaul flts seemed to use the satellite which is shaped like a big '+'. It's easy to see/photograph a/c on the gates but I don't remember there being much variety as most of the 'foreign visitors' were actually codeshares on MAS flts. I caught the 11pm service from LHR and it was just getting dark when I arrived in KUL. Traffic seemed decidedly quiet at that time too.
There's a train over to the main terminal which may be good for views of the local stuff but I didn't have time to check this out. Also there is supposedly an 'observation hill' very close to rwy 14L/32R but I didn't venture landside. Very nice airport for the traveller though and comparable to HKG or SIN for comfort/facilities/etc.
OdiE From United States of America, joined Jan 2001, 1641 posts, RR: 1 Reply 8, posted (11 years 1 month 1 week 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 2482 times:
Hkg_clk: The Pan Pacific Airport is one of the best airport within the airport area. I believe some rooms do offer a view of the runway as well as of the Main Terminal Building and Satellite Terminal. However, seeing that you are from Hong Kong, there are lots more aircraft to see at HKG compared to KUL. There are several airlines that operate at KUL only and not in HKG, eg. Lauda Air, Lion Airlines, Qatar Airways, Egyptair (not too sure if they operate at HKG, but services will start somewhere in June/July I think!), some other Indoneasian carriers, Air Asia if you are flying in after July 4 yadda yadda yadda.
There's also an airside hotel, located near the gate C 05 if I remember correctly. However, the room rates there are charged in block of 6 hours. It's located in one of those satellite arm where you board the aero train towards the main terminal building. If you are flying in with Cathay, you would most probably use gate C 35 for both your arrival and departure.
If you are spending 1 or 2 nights in KUL, I would seriously suggest you head towards downtown Kuala Lumpur. With the new air-rail link, it takes you only 28 minutes or less to reach downtown from KLIA. And it cost around 70 HKD for a one way trip to downtown Kuala Lumpur from KLIA.
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