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

Following a show floor reception last night at the Charlotte Convention Center in North Carolina, NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference held its opening session this morning. While this year’s theme of resiliency was chosen long before the rise of COVID-19, the irony of that choice was not lost on Schedulers &amp; Dispatchers Committee co-chair Stephen Clark, who acknowledged the resulting diminished attendance at the show&nbsp;but reiterated the committee’s goal to put on a world-class educational program.

 


NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen, attending his 15th SDC, ceded much of the time for his usual address to two guest speakers. Dr. Clayton Cowl, chairman of the Mayo Clinic’s preventive, occupational and aerospace medicine department, addressed the audience of several hundred show-goers&nbsp;and recapped the rise and spread of coronavirus in basic terms, noting that while most cases are mild, 20 percent are considered severe. He was encouraged by the declining trend in new cases in China, which was the epicenter.

 


With people able to view online tote boards showing the current number of infections, Don Chupp, president and CEO of emergency response coordinator Fireside Partners, warned against “compressive stress” brought on by the continuing barrage of crisis news. As a silver lining, he noted that as airlines scale back service, business aviation will likely need to scale up operations.

COVID-19 On the Table at SDC Opening Session

As NBAA's SDC 2020 opened in Charlotte with the theme of resiliency, the effects of Coronavirus on a micro and macro scale took center stage.

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NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers 2020

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