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

While the founders of Azure Flight Support have been in the FBO game for more than 40 years, the company has only had that name for about the past four years. David Augustin and Allen Howell founded Corporate Flight Management (now Contour Aviation) back in the early 1980s and established an FBO at Nashville-area Smyrna Airport (KMQY).
Along the way, they added two more Tennessee locations, at Crossville Memorial Airport (KCSV) and Cleveland Regional Jetport (KRZR), before divesting from Corporate Flight and rebranding the FBOs as Azure Flight Support in 2019.
With its facility situated on the east side of the field at KMQY for nearly three decades, the company relocated in 2005 to a newly built 4,000-sq-ft FBO on the west side next to the airport authority’s three-story terminal. It offers a passenger lounge, pilot lounge with snooze room and shower facilities, eight-seat conference room, flight planning area/business center, concierge, onsite car rental, and crew cars. Azure is in the midst of a $200,000 nine-month-long interior refresh of the terminal, including new paint and furniture, renovation of the break room kitchen, and the reconfiguration of offices to add another conference room.
The 17-acre complex has 50,000 sq ft of heated community hangar space, capable of sheltering aircraft up to a Gulfstream G650, and an additional twenty 1,100-sq-ft T-hangars that can each accommodate a light jet or turboprop. The facility is home to 20 turbine-powered aircraft ranging from a Bombardier Challenger 350 to a Pilatus PC-12 turboprop single. It has more than 8 acres of property on its leasehold available for further development, and it is negotiating with aircraft operators interested in building private hangars to house their flight departments.
A member of the Titan Aviation Fuels-branded dealer network, the CAA-preferred location has a fuel farm with a capacity of 52,000 gallons of jet-A and 14,000 gallons of avgas. It is served by a trio of 5,000-gallon jet refuelers and a pair of 1,000-gallon 100LL tankers. Azure has held the Department of Defense fueling contract at KMQY for the past decade and can handle virtually anything in the military arsenal up to and including the C-17 Globemaster and the KC-135 aerial refueler.
The company recently entered into a partnership with SMN Investments on a Part 135 charter certificate, and it operates a pair of BAE Jetstream 31 turboprop twins, with a G550 and a Beechjet presently undergoing onboarding. Also as a result of that partnership, Azure acquired a Part 145 maintenance certificate in September. Austin explained to AIN that the location is currently limited to accessory, component, and light general aviation repairs as it works its way up to jets.
Open from 6 a.m. Sunday through 10 p.m. Friday, the FBO is staffed from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Saturday. It has 20 employees, trained in the NATA Safety 1st professional line service program as well as Titan’s ACE Quality Control program. “We’re fortunate we have a crew here; some are with us for 12 years, some 10, some eight, which is pretty rare in the FBO world with high turnover,” said Azure COO Jenny Hoffman. “We don’t have that, and it’s a testament to the kind of people we’ve got working with us.”
When it comes to customer service, Augustin, Howell, and Hoffman practice a very hands-on management style. “Myself, David, and Allen make sure we greet everyone who walks in here,” explained Hoffman. “We’re very active 'on the floor,' if you will, with the day-to-day operations at our locations.” And when it comes to customer service, “We treat people who come through our doors the way we would like to be treated when we go out somewhere that is providing customer service,” she stated. “That’s Tennessee—a friendly smile when you arrive at our facility.”
Hoffman noted that the summer and fall are the busiest traffic seasons for the facility, with vacation travelers heading to Nashville for Music City’s CMA Fest and NASCAR races.
Every year for the past two decades, just after Labor Day, the company turns over one of its Smyrna hangars to the local Rotary Club chapter for a community-wide fish fry, which typically attracts thousands to the facility. According to Augustin, over that span, the event has generated more than $2 million, which has been funneled back into the community for special benefit projects. “Their most recent project is they built an all-inclusive park just across the highway from the airport,” he said. “It’s a good event, and it brings a good following out to the airport.”

New developments at FBOs including regulations and noise issues; legal disputes; openings, acquisitions and mergers.

Azure Flight Support Is in Tune with Music City Flight Traffic

Azure Flight Support brings more than 40 years of FBO experience to its Smyrna Airport facility

Azure Flight Support brings more than four decades of FBO management experience to its facility at Smyrna Airport.

Azure Flight Support in Tune with Music City Flight Traffic

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

New developments at airports including regulations and noise issues; legal disputes; openings, acquisitions and mergers.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Airport last owned the facility in the early 2000s

Illinois Airport Reacquires Sole Service Provider

The complex is viewed as the cornerstone of an aviation conglomerate

Major Las Vegas Hangar Complex Changes Hands

Projects totaled more than $5 million in infrastructure development

Oklahoma Airport Gets More Hangars, Upgraded Ramp

The facility will lean heavily towards sustainability

Clay Lacy Aviation Starts Construction on New KSNA FBO

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

More In FBOs

Illinois Airport Reacquires Sole Service Provider

Airport last owned the facility in the early 2000s

Major Las Vegas Hangar Complex Changes Hands

The complex is viewed as the cornerstone of an aviation conglomerate

Oklahoma Airport Gets More Hangars, Upgraded Ramp

Projects totaled more than $5 million in infrastructure development

Clay Lacy Aviation Starts Construction on New KSNA FBO

The facility will lean heavily towards sustainability

NATA Panel Examines FBO Preparation for eVTOL Service

OEMs and FBOs talk about how electric aircraft can be accommodated at FBOs

NATA Conference Panel Examines FBO Consolidation

While the big chains take a more selective approach, others remain hungry

Atlantic Aviation Gets Lease Renewal Approval in Aspen

The decision is the latest in a nearly two-year saga at the airport

Clay Lacy Aviation Gets Nod for Sun Valley FBO

Construction is expected to begin next year

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN