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.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

Further evidence of the looming industry demand for professionals was presented on Tuesday at the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) Conference in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Capt. Bander Khaldi, managing director of the country’s National Aviation Academy, noted that Saudi Arabia alone will need 8,800 pilots and nearly 12,000 maintenance technicians by 2024 to keep up with worker attrition and fleet growth.

 


A recent Boeing study projects a worldwide demand for 790,000 pilots, as well as another 622,000 maintenance technicians, over the next 20 years. Collectively, the business aviation and civil helicopter sectors will demand an additional 155,000 pilots and 132,000 technicians. Khaldi discussed development plans for the academy and how it plans to fill the country’s specific needs. Among the other speakers were Dr. Sami Alsrisrari, deputy assistant president of aviation standards and director of safety and risk with Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation, and Capt. Mohammad Al Subaiei, director of Saudi Aramco’s local workforce development department.

 


The conference attracted nearly 150 business aviation professionals from the region. “The MEBAA Conferences are an integral part of our mission to drive business aviation forward in the MENA region,” explained Ali Alnaqbi, MEBAA’s founder and executive chairman. “Over the years, the conferences have grown and continue to attract the industry’s key players as speakers, panelists, and, of course, attendees.”

News about simulators and training procedures, as well as workforce.

MEBAA Conference Highlights Saudi Pilot Needs

One of several discussions at the MEBAA conference this week in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the country is expected to need nearly 9,000 pilots by by 2024.

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News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

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People in Aviation —September 2026

Michel Denis was named CEO of Daher, Steve Varsano president of Flexjet, and Robert Sumwalt was the next Wright Trophy recipient

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