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

Global helicopter lessor Milestone Aviation has signed a lease agreement with Norwegian helicopter operator Lufttransport for a pair of Leonardo AW139s. The medium twins will be delivered to the new Milestone customer in 2025.
“The AW139 is an extremely capable aircraft with the highest safety standards and advanced avionics,” said Lufttransport CEO Erlend Olsen. “We thank the Milestone team for their support, and we look forward to a long and successful relationship with them.”
The AW139 is the platform where Milestone is now seeing its highest demand. “I think the AW139 segment has been relatively robust even through the oil and gas downturn,” Milestone CEO Pat Sheedy told AIN, adding that the medium twin class in general has performed well over the last several years. “There’s a lot of tightness in that market, and the AW139 as a product has really had that space to itself from 2015 onward.”
Milestone, The world’s largest helicopter lessor,&nbsp;has more than 80 AW139s in its fleet.

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