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.