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

“Our goal was never to be a big FBO; the goal was always to be the best FBO,” said George Moussa, owner and president of Ambassador Jet Center, one of two service providers at Dallas Executive Airport (KRBD), formerly Redbird Airport. Moussa bought the FBO—which sits on a 17-acre leasehold—in 2001, and at that time, it consisted of what he described as a “small shack” and a hangar at the then-sleepy airport located south of the city’s business district.
The old building was torn down and replaced with a two-story 5,500-sq-ft terminal featuring a double-height passenger lobby, eight-seat conference room, pilot lounge, refreshment bar, and kitchen downstairs, with company offices upstairs, along with a balcony overlooking the atrium.
Nearing 20 years old now, the company strives to keep the building—currently in the midst of a full renovation—in prime condition. Recent improvements include an upgraded CSR counter, new flooring, paint, and coffee bar. Next on tap for refurbishment are the pilot lounge and restrooms, with the project slated for completion by mid-summer 2025.
An adjoining 18,000-sq-ft hangar is capable of sheltering the latest ultra-long-range business jets, while the complex includes a pair of 4,900-sq-ft hangars, two 4,225-sq-ft hangars, and a trio of 3,600-sq-ft private hangars, along with 110 T-hangars. It is home to a half-dozen turbine-powered aircraft ranging from a Daher TBM 900 to a pair of Dassault Falcon 900Bs.
While KRBD’s contract tower is staffed from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m., seven days a week, Ambassador—with its staff of 12—is open from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. with after-hours callout available.
The Avfuel-branded location claims the lion’s share of activity on the field and pumps more than a million gallons of fuel a year from its fuel farm, which holds 20,000 gallons of jet-A and 10,000 gallons of avgas. It is served by a trio of refuelers, two jet tankers (8,000-gallon and 5,000-gallon), and a 750-gallon capacity 100LL truck. The FBO is the official refueler for the Commemorative Air Force headquarters, which is located on the field and is home to the still-flying WWII bombers B-29 Fifi and B-24 Diamond Lil.
“Our general transient customer is one that has business in downtown Dallas because we are so easy to get to,” Moussa told AIN. “The airport advertises itself as one traffic light and 10 minutes [away].” He added that KRBD has experienced a renaissance over the past decade, with the city’s infrastructure investments attracting more customers and more businesses.
To meet that growing demand, Ambassador soon expects to begin construction on a $3 million, 22,000-sq-ft hangar, which is slated to open next year.
With the Metroplex offering aircraft operators many choices, Moussa believes it is the customer experience that is the lone distinguishing feature. “The way I teach my guys is our jet-A is no different than anyone else’s, and so the only thing we have to sell is customer service or they’ll go somewhere else,” he said. “Pilots are lucky because Dallas is peppered with airports. You’ve got Love Field, you’ve got Mesquite, Arlington, Meacham, Addison, Midway, Lancaster, you go down the list within a five-minute airplane ride, you can probably get to three or four different airports, so it’s all really close.”
As a result, he expects and encourages his staff to go the extra mile (in some cases literally) for customers. “We’ve taken customer cars into the dealership to get serviced or a new set of tires put on them. “We’ll go wash a customer’s car for them, and if it’s late at night, we’ll drive someone to their hotel rather than have them take an Uber, even if it’s downtown.”
Moussa noted that he has had numerous opportunities over the past two decades to sell the business, but has no plans to. As a pilot himself, he continues to leverage his experiences in the industry to improve the facility. “I know what it’s like to go into an expensive FBO, and you just feel like you’re getting taken advantage of, and so we always try to do what’s right,” he said. “We don’t want to rip them off, we don’t want to overcharge them, we want to make them feel welcome because we want their business back.”

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