Originally Posted by darrenpb

Gotcha. Thanks. I always assumed flights had to circle around the airport in a holding pattern to get in line to land when it is busy. Didn't know they could just zig-zag their way in.

Originally Posted by Sykes

Delay vectors, however, are super common for creating an extra mile or two of spacing when necessary. Often they're just not quite as dramatic as this one (e.g. a turn in a slightly less-than-optimal direction).