AIN Media Group editors were honored with two journalism awards presented at the annual media breakfast ahead of the opening session on Tuesday at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas.
NBAA bestowed AIN senior editor Kerry Lynch with the Platinum Wing Award for her lifetime achievement and excellence in business aviation reporting. Lynch joined AIN in 2014 as its Washington editor, reporting on government and regulations, as well as a range of industry news. She serves as the show editor for the company’s Heli-Expo show editions, as well as managing editor for AIN’s NBAA Convention News show daily.
This comes after a 25-year career with Aviation Week, where she steered the Weekly of Business Aviation newsletter for five years, and also oversaw business aviation content for the Aviation Week Intelligence Network. In 2012, she became Business & Commercial Aviation’s Washington columnist and also spent nearly five years in that same role for the company’s monthly Overhaul & Maintenance magazine.
She was a recipient of NBAA’s Gold Wing Award in 2003, and in 2004 took home the NATA Aviation Journalism Excellence Award.
“Everyone on the AIN Media team is so grateful for the well-deserved recognition Kerry received,” said editor-in-chief Matt Thurber. “We all appreciate her extraordinary talent and skill when telling the story about business aviation.”
James Wynbrandt, a contributing editor for AIN sister publication Business Jet Traveler, earned this year’s NBAA Gold Wing Award for Journalism Excellence for his article “Flying in the Age of Covid-19,” which was published in the fall 2020. The story explored how pandemic-induced changes to the business aviation landscape would affect everyone in the industry and how those changes might be addressed.
"We’re delighted by this recognition for James,” said BJT editor Jeff Burger. “He has been a regular contributor to our pages for many years, and his knowledgeable, well-researched articles on the charter field, the preowned market, and many other subjects have added significantly to our magazine.”
Burger noted that this article was also a finalist in this year’s Aerospace Media Awards, and it is currently a finalist for Best Single Article in a travel or transportation magazine in the Folio: Eddie Awards, which will be announced this week. This is the second consecutive Gold Wing for Wynbrandt, who also won in 2019. (The competition was not held in 2020.) Business Jet Traveler contributors have earned six of the past 12 NBAA Gold Wing awards.
