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

Airports across Florida are shrugging off the results of Hurricane Milton today. The storm came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane on Wednesday evening just south of Sarasota on the state’s Gulf Coast. Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport (KSRQ) will remain shuttered until at least tomorrow as workers continue to clean up and assess damage to the airport’s infrastructure.
Fredrick Piccolo, president and CEO of the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority, told AIN that the eye of the storm passed directly over the airport, causing the loss of the roof to its commercial concourse, which is currently scattered across its ramps, runways, and taxiways. He also reported damage to a dozen hangars on the field. While power was restored to the main airport around midnight last night, Piccolo said the FBOs are on a different line and would be running on generators. He expects the airport to reopen to GA traffic at noon on Saturday, with commercial service to follow next week, pending TSA approval.
Atlantic Aviation, one of the two service providers at KSRQ, declined to comment on the status of its facility, saying only that it is “ensuring our team, their families, and our customers are safe and able to begin recovery as needed.”
Further north, St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (KPIE) was also heavily impacted. Orlando-based Signature Flight Support told AIN&nbsp;that the airport is slated to reopen this afternoon and that its FBO there suffered damage to its terminal and hangars. “The storm impacted our headquarters and five of our bases: St. Petersburg (KPIE), Tampa (KTPA), Kissimmee (KISM), Orlando (KMCO), and Jacksonville (KJAX),” a company spokesperson stated, adding that most of those bases experienced minor damage. “The hardest hit were KPIE and KTPA (which reopened at 8 a.m. this morning). While our facilities were impacted, no aircraft were damaged because of the storm.”
Sheltair, which is also based in Florida and has the most extensive FBO network in the state, saw damage to its two locations in St. Petersburg as well with hangars heavily damaged at both KPIE and GA-only Albert&nbsp;Whitted Airport (KSPG), which also remains closed. “We were able to reopen our other central Florida locations within 36 hours of the storm passing,” the company reported. “Currently our Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, Ocala, Daytona, and Melbourne locations are all fully operational.” It added that its Jacksonville, Pompano Beach, and Fort Lauderdale FBOs never ceased operations during the storm.
To the south of Milton’s track, the airport-operated FBO at Page Field Airport in Fort Myers noted that it sustained minor damage and was fully operational this morning with power restored. At nearby Southwest Florida International Airport (KRSW), Private Sky—the lone service provider—reported minimal damage to its facility, and much as it did during the previous Hurricane Ian, it is hosting Air National Guard search-and-rescue operations with its ramp packed with Black Hawk and Chinook helicopters. It has set aside one of its hangars as a dormitory for the SAR crews temporarily based there and has reopened to general aviation flights as well.
As a result of the storm, Naples Airport noted that it only has Runway 5/23 available for operations. “This runway and the Naples Aviation FBO are available from sunrise to sunset daily until further notice,” it stated, adding that it is working to fully restore the airfield as quickly as possible.
All the service providers acknowledged the extraordinary efforts made by their local staff, in some cases putting others ahead of their own needs, as they prepared locations to weather the storm and assist in cleanup and recovery. As displaced residents return to their homes over the next several days, they expect unusually high levels of activity.

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