Many runways have localizers or other radio aids to help aircraft land. The
most precise of these is the ILS system, which allows you to not only track
in to the runway, but also guides you down in altitude as well. GPS with
WAAS promises such precision approaches will someday be available at
airports that do not have expensive ILS equipment.

There is no such thing as a visible laser beam. In order for you to see any
kind of light, it has to be reflected off some kind of surface. If you want
to see a laser beam you have to shine it through a fog or cloud of dust of
some kind. I know that in Hollywood you can always see laser beams, but all
Hollywood movies use physics from some other universe than our own. This is
why in movies you not only see laser beams, but also bullets always flash
when they hit something, people can outrun shock waves, and people can stand
around in shorts and without oxygen masks in a cargo plane that has the
doors open in flight, but the hero needs oxygen and a protective suit the
moment he leaves the airplane. You cannot shine a laser beam at an airplane
cockpit because it might blind the pilot. The same fog or clouds that render
an airport invisible will also obscure a laser beam.