Definition
A named geographic point that defines a segment of a Standard Terminal Arrival Route (STAR), used by the flight management system and ATC to sequence an aircraft from the en route structure into the terminal area for landing.
Plain English
A specific point on the published arrival route into an airport. The aircraft flies from one of these points to the next, following the arrival path down toward the runway.
Context Anchor
Seen on STAR charts and in GPS or flight management system route pages during instrument arrivals.
Derivation
‘Arrival’ comes from the Latin ‘ad ripam’ meaning ‘to the shore’ — the point of coming in. ‘Waypoint’ is a modern navigation term meaning a named point along a route. Together: a named point along the path of coming in to land.
Why Pilots Care
Arrival waypoints keep traffic flowing along predictable paths, help maintain separation from other aircraft, and reduce controller workload during busy arrivals.
Intuition Check
An arrival waypoint is not the airport itself. It is a navigation point used before reaching the airport area or before starting the final approach.
Example Sentence 1
The crew loaded the STAR and verified each arrival waypoint and its crossing altitude before starting the descent.
Example Sentence 2
ATC cleared the aircraft direct to the next arrival waypoint to shorten the arrival.