Malone AirCharter CEO Cristine Kirk has been named vice chair of the National Air Transportation Association board of directors. She was first elected to serve on the NATA board in June 2023.

Kirk joined Jacksonville, Florida-based Part 135 Malone AirCharter in 2010 as staff accountant and was promoted to chief financial officer after just five years. In that role she spent the next six years on the company's strategic leadership team focusing on safety, customer service and growth. In 2021, Kirk purchased Malone AirCharter, continuing to run the company in the same family-owned tradition of its founding in 2002.

Under Kirk's leadership, the company moved from Jacksonville Executive airport to Jacksonville International airport, where the company is currently in the planning process of building a new, larger, custom facility. Malone AirCharter has also been featured on the cover of Professional Pilot Magazine and the Jacksonville Business Journal Fast 50. Kirk is an honouree of the Jacksonville Business Journal's Ultimate CEO, a recognition of her achievements in helping to shape Jacksonville and its business community.

"Cristine has consistently applied her own personal and professional commitment to learning and aiming higher to her work with NATA. The NATA board is pleased to recognise her enthusiasm, compassion and initiative in her role as vice chair as keys to even greater success for the association," says board chair and COO of Sheltair Aviation Todd Anderson.

"Cristine's energy is infectious, and her perspectives as a business-owner, operator and industry leader are invaluable to NATA's board and the association's future. We are excited to work with her in her new role," adds president and CEO Curt Castagna.