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Old 1st October 2025 | 16:08
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Andy_S
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From: Clarty Waters, UK
Originally Posted by champair79
Hi Andy,

The runways in Istanbul are parallel. The latest ground chart I have shows they’re all on a magnetic heading of 354 degrees. The airport authority in association with the Turkish CAA has decided that this is the best way to number the runways. I think even more runways are planned which may see runway 18/36 become a L/R or C in the future too!

Paris CDG is another where the runways to the north of the central area are 09/27s and the southerly ones are 08/26s despite all being on the same headings.

Essentially, it’s a best practice to number them based on the magnetic heading but slight differences are allowed especially if runways are grouped to reduce the chance of confusion (I.e. 34L and R are next to each other, then 35L and R etc).
Hi Champair. Great answer, thank you for the explanation.

Common sense tells me that if you start to number parallel runways 36LL / 18RR or 36L1 / 18R1 for example it introduces the potential for potentially dangerous confusion
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