Given how speed and efficiency is a crucial component of its DNA, the aviation industry can be surprisingly slow in embracing new concepts and technology. But behind the scenes of air traffic control, a silent revolution is underway. Meet Point Merge, a sophisticated yet simple air traffic management technique that’s quietly transforming how the world’s busiest airports handle their arrival flows.
What is Point Merge?
In 2006, bright minds (we assume) at the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre developed Point Merge, a conceptual sequencing technique to simplify and enhance arrival operations. The traditional method to guide aircraft during the final stage of an approach is to issue radar vectors, essentially turning instructions, toward the runway. This requires constant radio communication, heavy workload, and creates unpredictable flight paths.
Point Merge instead uses pre-defined arc-shaped “sequencing legs” that are all equally distanced from a so-called merge point. Aircraft arriving from different directions fly to one of these arc-shaped legs, cruise along it at a constant speed, and wait for their turn. When the moment is right, air traffic control simply issues a “direct to” instruction to the merge point. From there, all aircraft follow the same fixed path to join the final approach segment.
The real beauty of the Point Merge concept lies in its versatility. It’s scalable and flexible, depending on the environment of the airport. Procedure designers and controllers can use multiple arcs, with traffic joining from more than one direction. Lots of traffic? The arc gets longer. Conversely, traffic can fly directly to the merge point, and avoid the arc altogether, if it’s a calm period in the sector.
Simple? Yes. Effective? Indeed.
The technical foundation
Point Merge relies on something called Performance-Based Navigation (PBN). PBN allows aircraft to fly precise, pre-programmed routes using onboard navigation computers, rather than flying from one ground-based radio beacon to another. As long as the aircraft can meet the required accuracy standard, most commonly using GPS, it can fly more direct paths and curved approaches like those used in Point Merge.
Point Merge procedures are usually designed with RNAV1 in mind, specifying that an aircraft needs to be able to maintain a lateral navigation accuracy of ±1 nautical mile for at least 95% of the time. For all intents and purposes, this translates as basically all modern aircraft in commercial operation. Many assume PBN operations demand some form of on-board satellite navigation being available. While this is the norm, strictly speaking, even aircraft lacking satellite navigation may fly these procedures as long as they have on-board navigational systems living up to the accuracy demanded. A combination of an inertial navigation system (INS) and old-school DME/DME navigation may suffice. But seriously, now we’re getting way too technical. The main takeaway here should be that operators need not worry about the need for additional on-board technology.
No expensive add-on equipment is needed for ground controllers either, making Point Merge relatively cheap and easy to integrate for airports. A rare win-win not typically seen in the otherwise expensive aviation industry.
From Oslo to the world
The first Point Merge system went live at Oslo airport (OSL) in 2011. The results were compelling enough that the technique quickly spread—not just within Europe, but across four continents. As of 2025, Point Merge is now operational at 59 airports across 23 countries. Some notable airports include Istanbul (IST), Tokyo (HND), Shanghai (PVG), Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and Lisbon (LIS).
Speaking of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital is one of the finest advertisements there is for Point Merge. When NAV Portugal, the local air navigation services provider, introduced the sequencing technique at Lisbon’s airport in the summer of 2024, the results were as direct as they were remarkable:
- Overall delays dropped by more than 30% in the first year
- Over 200,000 minutes of cumulative delay reduction
- July 2024 saw a 25% reduction in delays compared to July 2023
- By April 2025, delays were down 38% compared to the previous year
Even more impressive: when looking specifically at delays directly attributable to air traffic control (basically excluding factors such as the impact of weather), monthly reductions ranged from 40.5% to a whopping 91.6%. To quote the great philosopher Larry David: “Pretty, pretty, pretty, good.”
Environmental gains
In a perfect world, every aircraft would be able to descend smoothly, throttles to idle, all the way down the runway. In reality however, pilots often find themselves in less-than-ideal approach scenarios, leading to unnecessary fuel burn and time consuming vectoring. Point Merge can to some extent alleviate this by enabling more aircraft to continuously descend on their way to the runway, rather than use the traditional step-down approach with multiple level-offs. This is especially true from the point the aircraft is ordered to exit the arc. If the aircraft however finds itself in an extended arc, leveling off may be inevitable.
By most accounts, the procedure still has a green tint to it. A peer-reviewed paper in 2020 simulated use of Point Merge at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport and came to the conclusion that implementation could see an average fuel consumption cut by 1,240 kg per flight, with NOx emissions reduced by 1.09 kg. Again, cue “Larry David impression”.
See Point Merge in action on Flightradar24
Enough talk, let’s fire up Flightradar24 and see what this neatly choreographed sky-dance looks like. Because why endure this poor writer wax poetically, when you instead can witness this elegant concept with your own eyes?
Point Merge is easily recognized by the distinctive arc pattern. Instead of the zigzag paths of traditional radar vectors, you’ll see smooth, curved tracks as aircraft follow the sequencing arc. A great place to start is by monitoring arriving traffic into Istanbul (IST) on a busy afternoon.
2 Responses
Great to see this working so well. I was heavily involved with preparing the first SIDS and STARS into Dublin in Ireland back in the nineties and they all had to be hung on Nav Aids of which there were very few. One VOR, two NDB’s and 2 marker beacons on the ILS if I remember correctly. It was a difficult task but they worked well for many years.
No US or Canadian airports?