#JustCurious How are the runway numbers assigned at YQR?

#JustCurious How airport runways are numbered #JustCurious How YQR assigns numbers to their runways

REGINA — A viewer named Derrick was #JustCurious about the runways at the Regina International Airport. Here’s how it all works:

Regina Airport CEO James Bogusz says runways are numbered based on a compass heading, or magnetic north. Believe it or not, the numbers of runways can (and do) change periodically, ever so slightly, as magnetic variation occurs naturally on Earth.

Take a compass and point it to magnetic north. Now look at the direction of the runway from above. That will give you the name of the runway below. At YQR (Regina International Airport) there is a runway that runs almost perfectly from east to west. It’s known as 08-26. Looking at your compass, that would be 80 degrees and 260 degrees running left to right. The main runway in this city is called 13-31, again that’s 130 degrees, 310 degrees, running northwest to southeast.

Every few years, airport officials will check the magnetic variation to make sure those numbers are still valid. A couple of years back, 13-31 was actually 12-30, and 02-26 was 07-25! All airports run on this same principle which means that those runway numbers are duplicated at airports across North America and are not unique to Regina.