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

Clay Lacy Aviation has broken ground on its $100 million FBO complex at California’s John Wayne Airport (KSNA) in Orange County. The Los Angeles-based service provider was awarded a 35-year lease on the field in <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2020-09-17/orange-county-supervisors-award-fbo-leases-sna">2020</a>&nbsp;as part of the airport’s general aviation <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-06-26/orange-county-approves-ga-restructuring-sna">restructuring plan</a>.
“Clay Lacy is the first of three fixed-base operators at the airport who will help us transform the entire landscape of John Wayne Airport,” said KSNA director Charlene Reynolds at Thursday's ceremony. “The large public-private collective investment not only helps our community, but our regional economy as well.”
The 14-acre facility will offer 41,800 sq ft of passenger terminal and office space, along with four hangars totaling 145,000 sq ft of space—capable of sheltering ultra-long-range business jets—and 6.7 acres of ramp. It will also feature a purpose-built home for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department air support unit. Phase One, which includes the first pair of hangars, is expected to be operational by mid-2026.
Upon opening, the facility will be the first FBO to receive ISI Envision Gold certification from the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure. It will be certified carbon neutral with solar panels, EV charging, and high-capacity electric aircraft charging to support eVTOL and hybrid-electric aircraft. It will continue to offer sustainable aviation fuel.
“[The FBO] will enhance and support the entire aviation ecosystem and pay it forward to the next generation of aviators and aviation professionals to live, to work, and to thrive here in Orange County,” said Clay Lacy Aviation owner and chairman Brian Kirkdoffer. “This development is an investment in new and emerging air mobility technologies that will put Orange County at the forefront of the aviation industry with thoughtfully better, sustainable facilities.”

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