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What phraseology is normally used for "runway 03 R" by air-traffic control and pilots?

A couple of possible options I came up with:

  • runway zero three R
  • runway three R
  • runway zero three right
  • runway three right

Is there any standard or preference of one form or the other to reduce confusion during communication?

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    $\begingroup$ Are you asking about a specific country? The US has a different practice here from the rest (?) of the world. $\endgroup$ – Pondlife Aug 14 '18 at 13:52
  • $\begingroup$ Indeed, in the US that would be "Runway Three-Right" rather than "Runway Zero-Three-Right." $\endgroup$ – randomhead Mar 9 at 21:48
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Runway 03 R would be pronounced as

Runway Zero Three Right

As ever, although British, I thoroughly recommend CAP 413 the UK's Radio Telephony manual:

https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?catid=1&pagetype=65&appid=11&mode=detail&id=6973

It's mostly ICAO compliant and barring small differences, should contain plenty of information for most operations. You'll see all runways are stated using two digits. Unfortunately I can't find an example of parallel runways in there.

One important note

Runway Zero Three Right

Designates runway 03R, as opposed to runway 03L.

However,

Runway Zero Three Righthand

Designates runway 03 and a right hand circuit. Very different things! In real life the chance of confusion is fairly slim, but it's worth noting.

Is there any standard or preference of one form or the other to reduce confusion during communication?

Absolutely. Considerable effort has gone into the standardisation of air traffic communications in order to decrease the risk of misunderstanding. Page 6 onwards of CAP413 above goes into excruciating detail about how to utilise numbers, for example.

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    $\begingroup$ Wouldn't the number '3' be pronounced as 'tree'? IIRC there is this convention to prevent the speaker from blowing into the microphone when making the 'th' sound. $\endgroup$ – Nijin22 Aug 14 '18 at 12:10
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    $\begingroup$ It would, I didn't write it phonetically though perhaps I should have. Though to be honest, I find a lot of people don't use the phonetic alphabet for numbers $\endgroup$ – Dan Aug 14 '18 at 12:27

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