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

PrivateSky Aviation, the lone FBO at Southwest Florida International Airport (KRSW), has initiated a lawsuit against Signature Aviation; its CEO, Tony Lefebvre; and others claiming breach of contract and fraud.
According to the suit filed this week in the Ninth Judicial Circuit in Florida, Signature approached PrivateSky in 2022 under the pretext of submitting an offer to purchase it and requested to review the service provider’s financial information.
With KRSW issuing an RFP for a second service provider on the field, PrivateSky was wary of disclosing sensitive information to a potential rival, but the lawsuit states that Signature made many representations that it sought the data only for considering a potential purchase and would use it for no other purposes. As evidence, the legal document cited an email from a Signature executive stating, “As I mentioned, we have no intention of starting an FBO in Lee County.”
The legal action claims Signature violated the agreement's confidentiality clause when it issued a proposal to the airport for a new FBO by leveraging Private Sky’s information. “Signature never made an offer to Private Sky,” the lawsuit states, “it made an offer to RSW instead.”
Signature responded to AIN: “We believe the lawsuit is without merit and are confident the facts will demonstrate this as the matter proceeds through the appropriate legal channels.”

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