A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;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&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;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&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;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.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

Zurich-based Jet Aviation’s Hong Kong facility recently received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to provide maintenance for Gulfstream’s new flagship, the ultra-long-range G650, the aviation service provider (Booth P1216) announced here at ABACE. 
The facility, which holds Hong Kong CAD maintenance repair station approval as well as mainland China JMM approval for PRC-registered aircraft, already has authorization to provide repairs and alterations on Gulfstream’s other large cabin twinjets, including the 400, 450, 500 and 550. Through Jet Aviation’s maintenance approvals in Singapore, the Hong Kong location also has maintenance authorization from other countries in the region, such as Australia’s CASA, Indonesia’s DGAC, Macau’s MAR-145, Malaysia’s DCA, the Philippines’ ATO, Singapore’s CAAS and Thailand’s DOA.
To meet increased business, Jet Aviation has embarked on an upgrade that will triple the size of its maintenance facility at Singapore’s Seletar Aerospace Park. The expanded facility, which is expected to be completed next year and will accommodate bizliner-class aircraft such as the Boeing BBJ and Airbus ACJ, will include battery, tire, upholstery and woodworking shops as well as two paint booths. 
“Jet Aviation is undertaking this expansion project to meet growing customer demand in the region, particularly for larger, long-range business jets,” said Gary Dolski, the vice president and general manager for Jet Aviation Singapore. “We’ll be able to accommodate up to up to five G650 or five [Bombardier] Global Express 7000 aircraft when the hangar is completed.”
The Singapore location has also been named as an authorized Asian service center for the Nextant 400XT, the remanufactured Beechjet 400A/XP. Nextant Aerospace, which entered the Asian market last year, and Jet Aviation signed a contract here at ABACE, making the Singapore facility the exclusive maintenance provider for the 400XT in Southeast Asia, and a core element in its global network of owned and authorized service centers. Introduced in 2011, the remanufactured twinjet offers more than 2,000-nm (3,709-km) range, putting the Singapore facility in range of flights from Mumbai, India or Shanghai without a refueling stop.
In addition to an uptick in maintenance demand in the region, Jet Aviation has also experienced rising demand for its aircraft management services. Over the past several months, the company added seven new aircraft to its managed fleet in Asia, including a new Gulfstream 650 and a 450, a Bombardier 5000 and a Dassault 7X. The company established its management and charter operation in Hong Kong in 2001 and currently handles 25 aircraft in the region. To accommodate the recent increase, Jet Aviation has expanded its staffing. 
“We are fully committed to meeting and exceeding customer expectations,” said Iris Riesen, managing director of the company’s Hong Kong management and charter division. “We now employ 12 full-time dispatchers to ensure customers receive the highest service levels at all times.” o

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