ABSTRACT
Air traffic control seeks to provide a safe and efficient service to all who request it and to all who fly where air traffic control is mandatory. Air traffic control tries to be impartial, within the overriding requirements of safety and aircraft capability to comply with air traffic control instructions. The military air traffic controller may provide safe passage and separation for a military aircraft transitting between its airfield and an exercise region and then keep other traffic away from that region during the exercise. Air traffic control can be categorized according to the type of control exercised and whether it is mandatory or advisory. A country with a large land mass could in principle reserve extensive designated regions for military air traffic whereas a small country may not have this option. An air traffic control system can be full to capacity when to the layman there seems to be few aircraft in the sky and long intervals between them.
