Plain English Meaning

A standard, published path that air traffic control uses to bring arriving airplanes from cruise down toward the airport in an orderly way. Instead of giving each pilot a long list of headings and altitudes, controllers can just say 'fly this named arrival,' and the pilot follows the route already printed on the chart.

Full Definition

A pre-published instrument flight procedure that takes an aircraft from the en route phase of flight to a fix or point from which an instrument approach can begin. A STAR is depicted on a chart and consists of a defined sequence of waypoints, , altitudes, and often , designed to organize the flow of arriving into busy .