Airport cancellations 4

Alas, this is the last installment of this series. But from time to time, it might be possible to update with new information or recently acquired items.

The second cover has the latest date for this cancellation in this collection of 19 October 1993 but it was very likely that it may have carried on until 2008.

This is definitely a very uncommon registration receipt for an item posted to Tawau from the airport. Perhaps in another 50 years it would be as valuable as the prewar postage due memos from North Borneo being more uncommon but it lacks an adhesive.

I have included this item from a previous posting as it logically belongs here. This is the latest airport cancellation that I know of from KK. It has the letters LTA for Lapangan Terbabng Antarabangsa or International Airport. This name probably came into being after services started in the new international terminal which started operations in August 2008 even though it was not until May 2010 when the project was completed. KK now has the second busiest airport in Malaysia.
The likely was this LTA cancellation came into use with this new terminal or possibly much earlier.

This is the Kuching airport post office cancellation. Funny they decided not to change it to Malay even though the reg label has it in Malay with "Lapagan Terbang". In use concurrently was another cancel with a similar format with narrower letters and also includes the time of day. There must be other Kuching airport cancellations even though they probably have not been recorded formally.
On this blog, airport cancellations for Brunei were shown previously. You can see them by clicking here.
I shall be having a couple of weeks' break from this blog before coming back with some more tasty morsels.

Airport cancellations 3

There are 4 covers here with the various cds and arrival markings. In addition, the 2 types of registration labels in English are also shown.

These 2 early covers with the Lapangan Terbangan K.K. cancellation shows the registration labels quite clearly. They were both addressed to Tawau, not surprisingly and gives a clue to the provenance of these items. The first cover has the earliest date that I know of for this cancellation of  4 August 1974.

As seen on these 2 covers, the registration label has changed to one with smaller letters but in the same format. The airport postmark remains the same. By 1989, the registration label was actually in Malay, the same as the cancellation.

Airport cancellations 2

Lapangan Terbang means airport in the Malay language.

From the dates in this collection, it would seem that this Lapangan Terbang K.K. cancellation was in use for many years. From covers which would be shown later on, the range of  dates of my items is between 4-8-1974 and 19-10-1993. Unless I am missing a postmark in between, it was likely that it was used until 2008 when the LTA (Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa) was introduced with the opening of the international airport. 

This was taken in August 2006 and a few months later Terminal 2 was torn down and rebuilt.

This is the old Terminal 1 in 2007 with a very nice background of Mt Kinabalu in the distance.

The view on approaching Terminal 2 which is primarily used by budget airlines and can be accessed from Mat Salleh Rd.

A stylised artist impression on what Terminal 1 should look like when completed and landscaped.

Airport cancellations 1

This is a 4 part series which include various airport cancellations which I bought and rescued from a stock book which was once part of the most comprehensive collection of North Borneo stamps and postal history ever assembled. I have also included items which were previously seen on these pages.

This is the first airport cds and can be quite elusive especially with covers. Notice that there was not enough room for "Sabah, Malaysia" to be included. As we have here are the EDS of 19 March 1966 and LDS of 29 April 1968.

This is the second airport cancellation now that the town has changed name to Kota Kinabalu. This is again an uncommon cancellation which was used between known dates of  22 August 1968 and 30 December 1969.

The third cancellation has a stop and also less space between the letters "KK". This cds probably started use in 1970. We have an EDS of 1 FEB 71 as seen on the above cover. The Malay words for Lapangan Terbang came into use possibly in 1974 and then used in handstamps to date.

It started off as a military airfield during the Japanese occupation. After the war, it was ungraded to an airport with additional use for civil aviation and scheduled flights. It was initially a grass strip measuring 1,125 meters long which was suitable for Douglas DC-3s. It was not until 1957 when the runway was resurfaced with bitumen and a new terminal building was also constructed.

                                        Photo by David Ayres              Flickr

Taken in 1967 from a Douglas DC-3 with another DC-3 in the foreground. By 1964 the runway has been extended to 1,921 meters in order to accept the much larger Comet 4 planes.