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

While some airports are facing pressure and discord from their local communities, Florida’s Naples Municipal Airport (KAPF) isn’t among them, according to the results of a recent survey.&nbsp;Conducted on behalf of the airport authority by an independent research and polling firm, the 37-question survey was provided via phone and text to nearly 1,500 randomly sampled residents of the city of Naples and its surrounding Collier County.
According to the results, an overwhelming 82.9% of Naples residents viewed KAPF as important to the community, while for the remainder of the county that sentiment was nearly 80%.&nbsp;While the <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2023-11-13/facing-noise-concerns-florida-airport-considers-move">relocation</a> of the airport has been discussed, 63% of Naples residents and nearly 61% of the county said it’s just fine where it is.
Naples Airport Authority executive director Chris Rozansky noted that the survey revealed insufficient understanding regarding the airport’s funding and its lack of control over flight route planning among community residents. He stated that most were unaware that KAPF receives no local tax dollars, with its revenue generated entirely from airport operations, and that they also did not know that the FAA generates flight routes, not the airport.
However, when informed of the airport’s $781 million annual economic impact on the area, its favorable impressions rose from 60.6% to nearly 83% in Naples and from 58.4% to more than 90% in the remaining county.
“This data-driven survey of community sentiment provides us with valuable insights to better assist the governing board in planning for the future,” said Rozansky.

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Survey: Florida’s Naples Airport Receives Strong Community Support

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Survey: Naples Airport Receives Strong Community Support

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