Frontier Airlines (1950–1986)

Frontier Airlines was formed from a merger of Arizona Airways, Challenger Airlines, and Monarch Airlines on June 1, 1950. They established their headquarters at Stapleton Airport in Denver. However, 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 to the south. The new airline served 40 cities in the Rocky Mountain region with 12 DC-3s and 400 employees.

Frontier flew DC-3s and started converting to Convair 340s and 440s in 1959. In 1964 it became the first airline to fly the Allison turbo-prop version of the Convair 580. The CV580 was a CV340/440 equipped with GM Allison turbo-prop engines and seated 50 passengers, two pilots, and one flight attendant. It could have carried 53 passengers, but that would have required a second flight attendant. The aircraft had three cargo compartments: front belly, front top, and aft.

In 1955, the Maytag family acquired controlling interest in Frontier and established L. B. Maytag as the 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, Frontier started to provide service with Boeing 727s on September 30, 1966, calling them Arrow-Jets. On October 1, 1967, Frontier purchased Central Airlines, based out of Fort Worth and integrated it into their system. This acquisition made Frontier one of the larger and stronger regional air carriers.

Al Feldman became president in March 1971 and converted the jet fleet to Boeing 737s.

On January 29, 1973, Frontier Airlines hired their first black pilot, Bob Ashby. Ashby was the only Tuskegee Airman to become a commercial passenger airline pilot. They 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 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. Ryland resigned November 6, 1984, and was replaced by Hank Lund, the well-known vice president. Joe O'Gorman, from United Airlines, took over in May 1985, giving rise to speculations that United would buy Frontier.

The employees' union coalition struggled to save the airline but failed. People Express bought Frontier on October 5, 1985, and put Larry Martin in charge after Joe O'Gorman resigned 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 unit, bought both People Express and Frontier Airlines. They were merged into Continental on February 1, 1987, along with New York Air and Continental Airlines’ other subsidiaries. Frontier's failure doomed People Express, New York Air, and four commuter carriers. It would take years to settle the pension disputes and lawsuits. Efforts were still being made in 2009 to settle ESOP accounts.

Frontier's last published 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 started a new airline, also named Frontier Airlines, which began operations July 5, 1994.

References

• Jake Lamkins, "Old Frontier Airlines website". http://FAL-1.tripod.com

External links

• Old Frontier Airlines a website about the history of the old Frontier Airlines and its predecessor airlines
• A Photo Website of the "original" Frontier Airlines
• [1] has several Frontier and predecessor timetables from 1947-62, showing where they flew, how often, how long it took and how much it cost.