For the last few weeks I have found myself uttering words that I never thought I’d hear myself say: “I’m going back to China next month.” That follows last year’s even more incredulous “I am going to China.” Before being informed that I would be on AIN’s on-site convention edition staff for last year’s relaunch of the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE), I had approximated the odds of my going to China as about the same as my visiting the moon. Not that it wasn’t on my wishlist, of course; I just didn’t see it happening any time soon.
So it was with a sense of disbelief that I found myself this time a year ago at the Shanghai Hawker Pacific Business Aviation Service Centre. The show itself was crackling with anticipation, and by the end, most of the exhibitors I spoke with couldn’t wait to put their deposits down to reserve a spot for this year’s show. One even told me that he couldn’t wait to taunt industry peers (who had demurred on attending last year’s show until it was sold out) about what they had missed. The ramp at Hongqiao International Airport was packed with heavy iron and chalets from all the major OEMs. With the exception of the cumbersome, inadequate and expensive on-site food situation (brought on in part by having to conform to stringent airport food quarantine regulations), last year’s show was a resounding success, which even spurred discussion between NBAA and its Chinese hosts on the possibility of building of a dedicated airport exhibition center along the lines of Geneva’s PalExpo (home of EBACE).
A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined AIN in 2007, Curt came to the publication from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to AIN sister publication Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.
