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

Florida's Palm Beach County has finally ended its battle with the FAA over a ban on private jets at Palm Beach County Park Airport (KLNA), formerly known as Lantana Airport.
The county, which operates four airports including Palm Beach International, had attempted to maintain the ban on aircraft over 12,500 pounds, which originlly was imposed nearly five&nbsp;decades ago, but was tested in a 2016 situation where a private jet pilot landed at KLNA in a Cessna Citation and was threatened with fines and jail time. The pilot petitioned the FAA to investigate the legality of the ban from a federal airport improvement program&nbsp;funding perspective.
While the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-02-24/faa-jet-ban-lna-violates-grant-agreements">FAA ruled </a>that the ban was "unreasonable and unjustly discriminatory," the county continued to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees in challenging the agency.
The case was eventually referred to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which sided with the FAA noting in its November 18 ruling that Subsection (a) of Grant Assurance 22 requires sponsors to 'make the airport available as an airport for public use on reasonable terms and without unjust discrimination to all types, kinds, and classes of aeronautical activities.”
The court further added that the Airport Noise and Capacity Act which the county cited in its defense generally prohibits “airport noise and access restrictions on the operation of ...Stage 3 aircraft.” The Citation in question fell under that&nbsp;category.
Local officials and residents say they will continue to press the FAA on noise mitigation and safety enhancements at the airport whose longest runway is 3,489 feet. The county had initiated a Part 150 noise compatibility study for the airport, which it claims was paused due to the litigation.

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Florida County Ends Decades-long Jet Ban at KLNA

Following a court verdict in support of the FAA, Florida's Palm Beach County has dropped its longstanding jet ban at Palm Beach County Park Airport.

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