AGL Visual Encyclopedia ENTRY 4 · RUNWAY LIGHTING SYSTEMS

What are runway centreline lights?

A longitudinal line of lights installed along the runway centreline to provide precise directional guidance during takeoff, landing, and rollout.

centreline (white)

centreline (red / red-white)

runway end

edge lights (context; yellow in last 600 m)

aircraft rolling out (illustrative)

The Fact ICAO Annex 14

Under ICAO Annex 14, runway centreline lights are required on CAT II and CAT III precision approach runways. They are also required on runways intended for take-off with operating minima below an RVR of the order of 400 m, and recommended on CAT I runways, particularly for high-speed aircraft or where the edge-light rows are more than 50 m apart. Installed along the runway centreline, they give the pilot directional guidance during the final approach, landing roll and take-off.

The lights are fixed lights showing variable white from the threshold to 900 m before the runway end. From 900 m to 300 m before the end they alternate red and white, and over the last 300 m they are solid red — a distance-to-go cue for the pilot rolling out, separate from the yellow caution zone of the edge lights. On a runway shorter than 1,800 m, the red/white alternation starts from the midpoint of the usable landing length.

Function Centreline directional guidance

Location Along runway centreline

Normal colour White

Final 900 m Red/white (900–300 m), then red (last 300 m)

Spacing About 15 m; about 30 m allowed where minima are RVR 350 m or greater

Light type Inset / flush-mounted

Intensity Adjustable

Reference ICAO Annex 14

Diagram is a zoomed view of the last 900 m of the runway as seen by an aircraft landing or rolling out. Fixture count and spacing are illustrative, not a literal layout (real spacing is about 15 m); the zone lengths are drawn in a 600 m : 300 m proportion and end at the runway end. The aircraft animation shows the colour sequence a pilot sees during rollout. Edge lights are shown for context only: white, then yellow over the last 600 m (or one third of the runway length, whichever is less). The edge-light caution zone and the centreline colour zones are separate cues. The distances shown are the ICAO values; FAA centreline lights are white to 3,000 ft from the end, alternating red and white from 3,000 ft to 1,000 ft, then red for the last 1,000 ft.