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

The business jet industry continued to build on its delivery momentum from last year, according to first-quarter delivery statistics released today by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). OEMs handed over 154 business jets worldwide in the first three months, a 19.4-percent increase over the 129 delivered in the first quarter of last year.


All the major business jet manufacturers saw increases year-over-year, led by Embraer, whose 11 additional Phenom 300 deliveries helped the Brazilian airframer post a 67-percent increase. Gulfstream also made gains, shipping 10 more aircraft in the quarter versus a year ago, for a 34.5-percent increase.


With 40 aircraft delivered in the quarter, the pressurized turboprop segment saw a 23-percent decline from the 52 aircraft shipped in the same period last year, driven by a 35-percent drop-off in King Air deliveries (22 versus 34 last year) from Beechcraft, which was acquired by Cessna parent company Textron in mid-March.


“The general aviation manufacturing industry’s first-quarter numbers in 2014…are encouraging and show that we continue to climb our way out of the recession,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. “But we remain a long way from being out of the woods.”

GAMA: 1Q Bizjet Shipments Rise, but Turboprops Stumble

First-quarter numbers are encouraging, “but we remain a long way from being out of the woods,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce.

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