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 aircraft and jet card provider Volato has merged with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Proof Acquisition Corp. (PACI) and began trading today on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol SOAR. The merger was approved last week in a special meeting of PACI shareholders.
At the same time, PACI announced the closing of an additional $12 million in private investments, which—along with $14 million in Series A Preferred Equity financing—was converted to common stock. These, with the conversion of Volato’s convertible debt, brings more than $60 million in total new capital funding raised for the company, which operates one of the world’s largest HondaJet fleets.
“This is an exciting milestone for Volato, our customers, and our investors,” said company CEO and co-founder Matt Liotta. “We believe that this transaction provides not only the capital to accelerate our fleet growth and strategy, but also a level of transparency and institutional support that should make our product even more attractive to new fractional owners and private flyers.” He added that, after posting nearly $100 million in revenue last year, Volato is now poised to build on that momentum as a publicly held company.
“When we identified Volato as an ideal partner for PACI, we were impressed by the company's innovative business model, proven results, and highly experienced team,” explained PACI CEO John Backus. “Our two teams have worked together to bring over $60 million of fresh capital to Volato, positioning the company for a strong debut.”

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Fractional aircraft and jet card provider Volato has merged with the company Proof Acquisition Corp and began trading today as a public company on the NYSE.

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