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.