aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot air ...

, a standard terminal arrival route or standard terminal arrival (STAR) is a published

flight procedure A flight procedure or instrumental flight procedure (IFP) is a set of predetermined maneuvers with specified protection from obstacles designed to achieve safe flight operations and an orderly flow of air traffic. Flight procedures linked to an aero ...

followed by aircraft on an

instrument flight rules In aviation, instrument flight rules (IFR) is one of two sets of regulations governing all aspects of civil aviation aircraft operations; the other is visual flight rules (VFR). The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) ''Instrument Fly ...

(IFR)

flight plan Flight plans are documents filed by a pilot or flight dispatcher with the local Air Navigation Service Provider (e.g. the FAA in the United States) prior to departure which indicate the plane's planned route or flight path. Flight plan format is ...

just before reaching a destination

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

. A STAR is an

air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...

(ATC)-coded IFR arrival route established for application to arriving IFR aircraft destined for certain airports.

Area navigation Area navigation (RNAV, usually pronounced as "''ar-nav"'') is a method of instrument flight rules (IFR) navigation that allows an aircraft to choose any course within a network of navigation beacons, rather than navigate directly to and from t ...

(RNAV) STAR/FMSP procedures for arrivals serve the same purpose but are used only by aircraft equipped with

flight management system A flight management system (FMS) is a fundamental component of a modern airliner's avionics. An FMS is a specialized computer system that automates a wide variety of in-flight tasks, reducing the workload on the flight crew to the point that mode ...

s (FMS) or

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

. The purpose of both is to simplify clearance delivery procedures and facilitate transition between en route and instrument approach procedures. (183 MB)

Description

A STAR is a flight route defined and published by the

air navigation service provider An air navigation service provider (ANSP) is a public or a private legal entity providing Air Navigation Services. It manages air traffic on behalf of a company, region or country. Depending on the specific mandate an ANSP provides one or more o ...

that usually covers the phase of a flight that lies between the last point of the route filed in the flight plan and the first point of the approach to the airport, normally the

initial approach fix The Initial Approach Fix (IAF) is the point where the initial approach segment of an instrument approach begins. An instrument approach procedure may have more than one Initial approach fix and initial approach segment. The initial approach fix is ...

(IAF). Hence, a STAR connects the en-route phase with the approach phase of the flight. A typical STAR consists of a set of starting points, called transitions, and a description of routes (typically via

VHF omnidirectional range Very high frequency omnirange station (VOR) is a type of short-range radio navigation system for aircraft, enabling aircraft with a receiving unit to determine its position and stay on course by receiving radio signals transmitted by a network ...

(VOR) radio beacons and airway intersections) from each of these transitions to a point near the destination airport, from where the aircraft can undertake an

instrument approach In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a landi ...

(IAP) or be vectored for a final approach by terminal

. Not all airports have published STARs, but most relatively large or hard to reach (e.g., in a mountainous area) airports do. Sometimes several airports in a locality share a single STAR; in such circumstances, aircraft follow the same arrival route until the final waypoint, diverging thereafter for their chosen destination. Although the route segment of the filed flight plan does not usually change during the flight itself, the STAR to be flown might well vary according to the weather, the runway or approach in use, or the need to safely separate air traffic, among other factors. Thus a filed flight plan typically ends some distance from touchdown, where a STAR begins, and that is usually assigned and communicated to the pilot during the flight planned portion of the flight. Naming conventions for STARs vary by country and region. In

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, they are often named after the transition waypoint, followed by a digit that is incremented with each revision of the procedure, and a letter designating the runway for which the STAR is intended. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, STARs are named after waypoints, or unique features of the STAR, or geographical features, followed by a digit indicating the STAR revision. A single STAR in the United States may serve multiple runways and transitions; European STARs are more likely to be independently published for each runway and/or transition. Not all STARs are for IFR flights. Occasionally, STARs are published for visual approaches, in which case they refer to landmarks visible on the ground or other visual reference points, instead of waypoints or radio navigation aids. STARs can be very detailed (as is often the case in Europe), allowing pilots to go from descent to approach entirely on their own once ATC has cleared them for the arrival, or they can be more general (as is often the case in the United States), providing guidance to the pilot, which is then supplemented by instructions from ATC. Typically, European STARs are very runway-specific and allow approaches to be made without the controller needing to issue radar vectors frequently until

short final An airfield traffic pattern is a standard path followed by aircraft when taking off or landing while maintaining visual contact with the airfield. At an airport, the pattern (or circuit) is a standard path for coordinating air traffic. It differ ...

. STARs published and used for United States air traffic tend not to have many deviations in waypoints per-runway, though they do have some.

References

{{Reflisthttps://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap5_section_4.html Federal aviation Administration. FAA. Aeronautical Information Manual. Effective: January 30, 2020, Change: 1. FAA National Headquarters (FOB−10B) Procedures Support (AJV−81). Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration
Air traffic control Aircraft operations Aviation publications

Description

See also

References