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

NBAA’s Schedulers &amp; Dispatchers Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina,&nbsp;ended a day early yesterday, caught up in the growing tide of Covid-19-induced event cancellations and postponements that also includes major sports events. Faced with these facts, NBAA’s leadership felt they had no choice but to pull the plug on the conference.

 


According to NBAA, 90 percent of the approximately 500 scheduled exhibitors attended the show, a number that corresponds to an informal count of empty booths on the show floor conducted by AIN. What was difficult to measure was the decline of attendees who either decided to skip the show&nbsp;or who were not permitted to attend by their companies due to travel restrictions.

 


By one estimate provided to AIN, as many as 40 flight departments canceled their attendance, but while the number of show-goers was definitely diminished, exhibitors who spoke with us&nbsp;said they had good conversations with the attendees and were able to spend more quality time with them.

 


The announcement to cancel today's programming came after the first set of educational sessions yesterday. NBAA representatives entered each meeting room and after the session concluded made the announcement, which was also sent via email.&nbsp;People were seen immediately using their smartphones to make alternate travel arrangements and the show floor, which was already slated to close that afternoon, soon emptied.

NBAA's SDC 2020 Goes Out Quietly

NBAA's Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference became a casualty of the growing tide of Covid-19-related event cancellations.

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NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers 2020

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