We present an application of Integer Programming to the design of arrival routes for aircraft in a Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA). We generate operationally feasible merge trees of curvatureconstrained routes, using two optimization criteria: (1) total length of the tree, and (2) distance flown along the tree paths. The output routes guarantee that the overall traffic pattern in the TMA can be monitored by air traffic controllers; in particular, we keep merge points for arriving aircraft well

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... eparated, and we exclude conflicts between arriving and departing aircraft. We demonstrate the feasibility of our method by experimenting with arrival routes for a runway at Arlanda airport in the Stockholm TMA. Our approach can easily be extended in several ways, e.g., to ensure that the routes avoid no-fly zones. 1998 ACM Subject Classification G.1.6 Optimization: Integer programming, J.2 Physical Sciences and Engineering: Aerospace patterns and avoid creating conflict points where human attention would be constantly needed to resolve the potential loss of separation between the aircraft. At most airports predesigned standard routes for departure and arrival are established. Currently, these Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Terminal Arrival Routes (STARs) are designed manually. This design is based on the airspace layout and incorporates constraints like avoidance of no-fly zones, manageability by ATCOs, and others. However, the manual design will generally not result in optimal routes for any specific criteria.