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

Fractional ownership aircraft provider Volato’s flight hours in the first three months dipped slightly quarter-over-quarter, according to key performance indicators the company released this morning. Volato is the largest HondaJet fleet operator in the U.S., and its 26 light jets flew nearly 3,000 hours in the first three months of 2024, down from more than 3,500 hours in fourth-quarter 2023.
Of that amount, however, the percentage of hours considered “empty” or non-occupied declined quarter-over-quarter from 37.9 percent to 35.1 percent, denoting improved fleet efficiency.
In the first quarter, the usage mix was split evenly between ownership and program/ad hoc charter, and its blended yield—the average occupied price per hour across all the company’s usage types—remained strong at more than $5,300 per hour.
“We continue to focus on growing our flight hours and optimizing our demand mix to achieve a higher blended score and lower empty percentage,” said company CFO Mark Heinen. “We are pleased the blended yield remained strong despite the impact of winter weather and fewer peak calendar days in Q1.”
On Monday, Volato’s executives celebrated the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange by ringing the closing bell. It became a <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2023-12-04/after-spac-merger-fractional-jet-provider-volato-goes">publicly traded</a> company via a SPAC merger in December.

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