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

Global business aviation traffic last month declined 2.1 percent year-over-year&nbsp;as part of an anticipated seasonal lull, according to the TraqPak data released this week by&nbsp;Argus International.&nbsp;
Contrasted with totals from February 2022, North American flight activity fell&nbsp;3 percent. Among operating segments,&nbsp;only fractional flying in the region&nbsp;showed an increase, climbing 7.9 percent from a year ago. Meanwhile,&nbsp;Part 135 activity dropped 8.4 percent, followed by&nbsp;Part 91 with a&nbsp;1.6 percent&nbsp;decline. All aircraft categories experienced single-digit&nbsp;activity decreases in North America last month.&nbsp;
In Europe, large-cabin jet usage was off by nearly 30 percent year-over-year, while overall activity was down by 12.6 percent in the same comparative period.&nbsp;For Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America,&nbsp;the nearly 56,000 business aviation flights last month represented a more than 10 percent increase from February 2022.
“February turned out pretty close to what we were expecting, which seems to be more of a sign of stability,” said&nbsp;Argus&nbsp;senior v-p of market intelligence&nbsp;Travis Kuhn. “While the month was lower than the busiest February on record [2022] it’s still up more than 10 percent from pre-pandemic levels and some&nbsp;500 flights more per day versus January. The biggest area&nbsp;of concern is the middle of the Part 135 market.”
Argus is forecasting&nbsp;North American and European traffic this month to be down&nbsp;4.6 percent and 12.5 percent, respectively.

Argus: Business Aviation Flight Activity Hits February Lull

While hitting its usual seasonal lull, business aviation activity in February also paled in comparison with last year's monthly record high.

Argus: Bizav Flight Activity Hits February Lull

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