One purpose of the ATIS is to ___.

• A. provide pilots with post-arrival information
• B. help relieve the controller of separation workload
• C. provide gate information
• D. relieve frequency congestion

Answer: (D)

ATIS is a continuous broadcast that gives pilots the latest weather, active runway, altimeter settings, and other essential information for a given airport. By listening to ATIS before contacting the tower or other ATC, pilots obtain these details without needing to call in repeatedly, which reduces the number of transmissions on the air-to-ground frequencies. That reduction in radio traffic helps prevent frequency congestion, making it easier for ATC to handle other communications and safety tasks. The other options describe services that ATIS does not specifically provide—post-arrival information and gate information—so they don’t capture the main purpose of ATIS as well as reducing frequency congestion does.