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Founded 1950 -  Ceased Operations 1986

 Lambert Field, St. Louis in June of 1973 

The original Frontier Airlines was a "local service" airline in the U.S. formed by a merger of Arizona Airways, Challenger Airlines, and Monarch Airlines on June 1, 1950. The headquarters for the air carrier was located at Stapleton Airport in Denver. The airline dated itself to November 27, 1946, when Monarch Airlines began service in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. Frontier Airlines served cities in the Rocky Mountains bounded by Salt Lake City to the west, Billings to the north, Denver to the east, and Phoenix and El Paso to the south. It served 40 cities in the Rocky Mountain region with 12 Douglas DC-3s and 400 employees in 1950. By the time the airline ceased operations in 1986, the number of airports served over the years would grow by over a factor of four with coast to coast service as well as flights to Canada and Mexico.

Frontier continued to operate Douglas DC-3s and added Convair CV-340 and CV-440 piston engine aircraft in 1959. In 1964 it was the first airline to fly the Convair 580 Allison turboprop version of the Convair airliner. The Convair 580 was a CV-340/440 aircraft retrofitted with GM Allison turboprop engines. The twin turboprop CV-580 seated 50 passengers, was flown by two pilots and was staffed with one flight attendant. The aircraft could have carried 53 passengers, but that would have required a second flight attendant. It had three cargo compartments: front belly, front top, and aft. The Convair 580 became the workhouse of the Frontier fleet until the introduction of the Boeing 737-200. In later years de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter turboprops were added to serve destinations too small for the Convair 580.

The Maytag Era

In 1955 the Maytag family acquired controlling interest in Frontier and named L. B. Maytag president. The Maytag family sold their stock in March 1962 to the Goldfield Corp. Lewis W. Dymond became president of Frontier and, under his guidance, the airline entered the jet-age by initiating service with new Boeing 727-100 jetliners on September 30, 1966. The Boeing trijet was called the "Arrow-Jet" by the airline. In the October 29, 1967 timetable, cities served with the 727 included Albuquerque, NM (ABQ), Colorado Springs, CO (COS), Denver, CO (DEN), El Paso, TX (ELP), Grand Junction, CO (GJT), Kansas City, MO (MKC), Lincoln, NE (LNK), Phoenix, AZ (PHX), Salt Lake City, UT (SLC), St. Louis, MO (STL) and Tucson, AZ (TUS). 727 roundtrip flight routings included DEN-COS-PHX-TUS, DEN-ABQ-TUS-PHX, STL-DEN-GJT-SLC, STL-MKC-DEN-GJT-SLC, STL-MKC-DEN-ABQ-ELP, STL-MKC-LNK-DEN and STL-MKC-DEN. Denver was the hub for the new jet as it was for many of Frontier's Convair 580 turboprop flights.
On October 1, 1967, Frontier purchased Central Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, and integrated this local service air carrier into their system. The addition of Central added a number of Convair 600 turboprop aircraft to the fleet as well as many new destinations. This acquisition made Frontier one of the larger local service air carriers. Central's Convair 600 aircraft were Convair 240 models that had been retrofitted with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engines. Frontier eventually phased out the Convair 600 turboprop fleet but continued to operate its Convair 580s.
By the late 1960s the jet fleet had expanded to include Boeing 727-200 aircraft.

Al Feldman became president in March 1971 and converted the jet fleet to Boeing 737-200 aircraft, eliminating the 727. Frontier would operate the Boeing 737-200 as their primary jet aircraft type for many years until McDonnell Douglas MD-80 jetliners were added to the fleet.
On January 29, 1973 Frontier Airlines hired its first black pilot, Bob Ashby. Ashby was the only Tuskegee Airman to become a commercial passenger airline pilot. It also hired the first female pilot for any U.S. commercial airline the same day, Emily Howell Warner. Warner was awarded her captain's wings three years later.
The final Frontier logo, a stylized "F", was created by Saul Bass and introduced April 30, 1978. By 1979, the airline had 5,100 employees and operated 35 Boeing 737–200 and 25 Convair 580 aircraft serving 94 cities in 26 states, Canada and Mexico.
On February 1, 1980 Al Feldman, Frontier's president, left to become the CEO of Continental Airlines. He was succeeded by Glen Ryland. Under Ryland, the airline started to decline. By 1982, employees began accepting lower wages and benefits in an effort to keep the business viable.

Frontier Horizon and the Final Years

In the early 1980s, when the major airlines were disposing of first generation Boeing 727-100 jetliners, this type of aircraft made a short-lived reappearance with Frontier when a wholly owned "airline within an airline" low cost subsidiary was created: Frontier Horizon. Boeing 727 aircraft, formerly operated by American Airlines, flew several nonstop routes from Denver which included service to New York La Guardia Airport (LGA), Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

Ryland resigned November 6, 1984, and was replaced by M.C. "Hank" Lund, the well-known vice president. Joe O'Gorman, from United Airlines, took over in May 1985, giving rise to speculation that United would buy Frontier.
The employees' union coalition struggled to save the airline but failed. People Express Airlines (PEOPLExpress) acquired Frontier on October 5, 1985, and put Larry Martin in charge after Joe O'Gorman resigned on January 29, 1986. People Express continued operating Frontier as an independent entity. On August 24, 1986, Frontier shut down due to continued losses and four days later filed for bankruptcy.
On October 24, 1986 Continental Airlines, a Texas Air Corp. unit, acquired People Express Airlines (PEOPLExpress) which as mentioned above had acquired Frontier Airlines the year before. Both air carriers were merged into Continental on February 1, 1987, along with New York Air and several other commuter airline subsidiaries. Frontier's failure doomed People Express, New York Air, and four commuter air carriers. It would take years to settle the pension disputes and lawsuits. Efforts were still being made in 2009 to settle ESOP accounts. Continental continued to operate the former Frontier jet fleet with the aircraft being repainted in Continental's livery. A portion of the Convair 580 fleet was sold to Metro Airlines which then operated these venerable turboprops as American Eagle flights via a code sharing agreement with American Airlines. This was the first American Eagle service.
Frontier's last timetable was dated September 3, 1986. It never went into effect because the airline halted operations and filed bankruptcy the week before. Some bankruptcy proceedings ended on May 31, 1990, exactly forty years after Frontier was formed, but the Chapter 11 case was officially closed July 22, 1998, by Charles E. Matheson, Chief Judge.

M. C. "Hank" Lund and other former Frontier executives went on to start a new airline, also named Frontier Airlines, which began Boeing 737 jet operations on July 5, 1994.
During the 36 years that the original Frontier Airlines operated scheduled passenger flights, over 170 airports were served by the air carrier, although not at the same time. Many of the small communities formerly served by Frontier no longer have airline service.

Frontier also operated Boeing 737-200 jetliner service into a number of smaller cities that normally would not have received such scheduled passenger flights with this mainline jet aircraft type. Destinations that received Boeing 737-200 jet service flown by Frontier over the years included Bismarck, ND, Casper, WY, Cheyenne, WY, Durango, CO, Fargo, ND, Farmington, NM, Ft. Smith, AR, Grand Forks, ND, Grand Island, NE, Helena, MT, Jackson, WY, Joplin, MO, Kalispell, MT, Laramie, WY, Lawton, OK, Manhattan, KS, Minot, ND, Missoula, MT, North Platte, NE, Pasco, WA, Pueblo, CO, Rapid City, SD, Redding, CA, Riverton, WY, Rockford, IL, Rock Springs, WY, Salina, KS, Scottsbluff, NE, Stockton, CA, Topeka, KS and West Yellowstone, MT. Denver served as the hub for virtually all of these 737 flight services.

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