What does the number painted on a runway mean?

The runway designator is the magnetic heading of that runway direction rounded to the nearest 10 degrees, with the trailing zero dropped. Runway 09 points about 090 degrees and the same strip used the other way is Runway 27, since the two headings differ by 180 degrees.

What are the broad white bars before the touchdown zone?

Those two wide rectangles are the aiming point marking, placed about 300 metres or 1,000 feet past the threshold. Pilots use them as a visual target so the aircraft touches down in the right part of the runway.

What is a displaced threshold?

A displaced threshold moves the start of the landing area further down the runway, shown by white arrows leading to a solid threshold bar. The paved area before it can be used for take-off and roll-out but not for touchdown, often because of obstacles on the approach.

Why are some runway markings yellow instead of white?

Runway markings are white, but yellow is used for surfaces that are not usable for normal operations. Yellow chevrons mark blast pads or stopways, and a yellow demarcation bar separates a displaced threshold from a preceding taxiway or unusable pavement.

What do the paired bars in the touchdown zone indicate?

Touchdown zone markings appear as groups of one, two, and three bars arranged in pairs at 150 metre intervals. They identify the touchdown zone and give the pilot distance-along-the-runway information during the landing flare and roll-out.

Airport Runway Marking Reference

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Understanding runway markings

Runway markings are a standardised visual language painted in white that tells pilots where the runway begins, where to aim, and where they are along its length. This reference covers the FAA and ICAO markings you will see on a precision-instrument runway: the runway designator, centreline, threshold bars, aiming point, touchdown zone, side stripes, displaced threshold, and chevrons. Filter the list to jump straight to any marking.

How it works

The most-asked-about marking is the runway designator. It encodes the runway’s magnetic heading:

designator = round(magnetic_heading / 10)   trailing zero dropped
heading 094  ->  09
heading 273  ->  27

Because a single strip of pavement can be flown from either end, each runway has two designators 180 degrees (18 in designator units) apart, such as 09/27. Parallel runways add L, C, or R for left, centre, and right. The remaining markings are positional: threshold bars mark the landing start, the aiming point sits 300 m in, and touchdown-zone bars step away in 150 m increments.

Tips and notes

Colour is the quickest cue. White means an active runway surface; yellow means a surface you should not use normally — chevrons for blast pads and stopways, a demarcation bar before a displaced threshold. The stripe count in threshold markings also encodes runway width, so a wider runway shows more longitudinal bars at its start.