Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL) is about 55 kilometres south of the city at Sepang, and it has two terminals that are five kilometres apart.
That last fact is the one to get right before anything else.
KLIA versus KLIA2
KLIA Terminal 1 — the original, opened 1998, designed by Kisho Kurokawa, with a forest atrium in the middle of the satellite building. Full-service airlines: Malaysia Airlines, Emirates, Qatar, Cathay, the European carriers.
KLIA Terminal 2 — opened 2014, purpose-built for low-cost carriers, and the main base of AirAsia. It is huge, it is functional, and it has a shopping mall attached.
They are separate buildings five kilometres apart, connected by a free shuttle train that takes three minutes and runs every few minutes.
Check which terminal your flight uses, particularly if you are connecting between a full-service and a low-cost airline. Allow proper time for the transfer; it is straightforward but it is not five minutes door to door.
The train
KLIA Ekspres — non-stop to KL Sentral in 28 minutes from Terminal 1, 33 from Terminal 2. Every 15 to 20 minutes at peak, half-hourly off-peak.
KLIA Transit — the same track, same trains’ sister service, but stopping at Salak Tinggi, Putrajaya, Bandar Tasik Selatan and then KL Sentral. About 36 minutes, and cheaper.
The Transit is the better deal unless the extra eight minutes matter. It also lets you stop at Bandar Tasik Selatan for the TBS bus terminal — useful if you are heading straight to Melaka or Penang — or at Putrajaya.
Book online for a discount, and there are family and return fares.
From KL Sentral you connect to the LRT, MRT, monorail and Komuter, or take a short Grab to your hotel.
The bus
Airport coaches run from both terminals to KL Sentral and to a few other points, taking about an hour to ninety minutes depending on traffic.
They cost a fraction of the express train — genuinely, a small fraction — and they are perfectly comfortable.
If you are not in a hurry and you are on a budget, this is a rational choice, and a great many people take it. The main risk is traffic; on a bad afternoon the journey stretches.
Grab and taxis
Grab works from both terminals with designated pick-up points. The fare is fixed in the app and, for two or three people with luggage, it can be comparable to or cheaper than the train, and takes you door to door.
Journey time is 45 to 75 minutes depending on traffic, which at peak can be considerably worse.
Airport taxis operate on a coupon system — you buy a fixed-price coupon at a counter before going to the rank. This works and it is more expensive than Grab.
Do not accept a lift from anyone approaching you inside the terminal. Licensed operators do not tout.
Which to choose
Alone, or in a hurry, arriving at peak: the train. Traffic cannot delay it.
Two or more people, off-peak, with luggage: Grab, door to door.
On a budget, with time: the bus.
Staying near Putrajaya or leaving by long-distance coach: KLIA Transit.
Times to allow
- Landing to a city-centre hotel: about ninety minutes by train, including immigration and baggage.
- Hotel to the gate: three hours for international. KLIA is large and the walk to a satellite gate is long.
Practical
Immigration at KLIA uses autogates for a growing list of nationalities. Malaysia requires most visitors to complete the Malaysia Digital Arrival Card (MDAC) online in the days before travel — this is free, it is done on the official immigration website, and there are many lookalike sites charging for it. Use the government site.
SIM cards and eSIMs are sold in arrivals and are cheap. Data here is inexpensive and you will want it for Grab.
Get a Touch ’n Go card at KL Sentral rather than at the airport, and see getting around.
Currency. The ringgit (MYR). ATMs in arrivals are fine; airport exchange counters are not the best rate but are not egregious.
Subang Airport (SZB), much closer to the city, handles turboprop and some regional flights — Firefly and a few others. If your ticket says Subang, it is a different and much smaller airport, twenty minutes from the centre.
Leaving
Check in at KL Sentral. The KLIA Ekspres city check-in at KL Sentral lets you drop bags and get boarding passes for several airlines before boarding the train, then walk to the gate at the airport with nothing. It closes a set number of hours before departure and it is one of the best-organised things in the city.
Give yourself time at KLIA. The satellite building at Terminal 1 is reached by an aerotrain, and the walk from the main terminal to a far gate at Terminal 2 is genuinely long.
Connecting to the rest of Asia
Kuala Lumpur is one of the great low-cost hubs. AirAsia flies from KLIA2 across Southeast Asia, India, China and Australia for fares that make the airport a reason in itself to route through here.
Singapore is 55 minutes by air and about five hours by bus or ETS train — and the train, via Gemas and Johor Bahru, is a genuinely pleasant way to do it.
Penang, Langkawi, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching are all short domestic hops, and Malaysian Borneo — Sabah and Sarawak — is a different country in almost every respect and worth the extra flight.