Jim.....agree that the added fee raises expectations but wrongly so. Just one more thing the airlines screwed up.
You said yourself that the controllers have to maintain separation. Altitude and lateral separation is given by the controller. Speed is also something that can cause separation to become minimal so it would seem logical that it would also be under the control of ATC in controled air space. I can't find anything as of yet to confirm my statement so I'll go ahead and just concede that for now.
