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.

Business Aviation Services Editor

Curt Epstein

Business aviation flying last month climbed 3.4% year over year, according to industry data tracker Argus International’s latest global aircraft activity report.
North America, the industry’s leading market, posted a 3.5% YOY increase in April, led by the fractional segment, which posted a 13% gain. While Part 135 operations rose by 4.5%, Part 91 usage fell into negative territory, down 1.5%. Across all aircraft classes, light jets had a nearly 8% boost in the region, while large-cabin use fared the worst, off by 5.8%.
Compared to March, North American business aviation activity declined 3.8% month over month, an outcome that was not unexpected, according to Argus senior v-p of software Travis Kuhn. “March is usually a top month for activity in the year; it has 31 days, and you have spring break travel,” he told AIN. “As a result, we typically see a month-over-month decline in activity from March to April.”
In Europe, activity for April was up by nearly 2% over the previous year. As in North America, the large-cabin segment saw erosion, off by half a point YOY.
Even with the Middle East posting a nearly 50% decline in business aviation flights compared to April 2025, the rest of the world posted a 3.1% yearly activity gain. Once again, the large-cabin jets lost the most ground, off 6.8% YOY and 8.8% from the previous month.
“Activity held strong in April, but there are signs of weakening in many spots,” said Kuhn. “Large-cabin activity was off in North America, European growth slowed down much more than expected, and activity in the Middle East remains off about 50% from normal.” Gazing ahead, he added, “We see May looking positive in North America, but that is certainly subject to change.”

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