Definition
The Airport Reference Point is the geographic position published for an airport, expressed as a single latitude and longitude. It is calculated as the approximate geometric center of all usable runway surfaces and serves as the official location of the airport for charting, navigation databases, and distance measurements.
Plain English
It is the single point on a map that marks where an airport is. Even though an airport covers a lot of ground, it gets one set of coordinates, and that point sits roughly in the middle of the runways.
Context Anchor
Seen in airport data, charting information, airport descriptions, and location-based planning.
Derivation
Reference comes from an older meaning of “to point back to” or “use as a guide.” That helps here because the ARP is the point other airport location information can refer back to.
Why Pilots Care
The ARP gives every airport a single, consistent reference location used for flight planning, instrument procedures, and distance calculations.
Intuition Check
Do not assume the Airport Reference Point is the control tower, terminal building, or runway midpoint. It is an official location point for the airport as a whole.
Example Sentence 1
The GPS showed eight miles to the ARP, so we began our descent for the traffic pattern.
Example Sentence 2
Approach charts list the ARP so pilots know the exact center point from which all runway distances are measured.