Old Frontier Airlines2

THE "OLD" FRONTIER AIRLINES

Frontier expanded significantly on October 1, 1967 when they purchased
Central Airlines, based in Ft. Worth, and integrated it into their system.
The combined airline made Frontier one of the larger and stronger regional air carriers.

The combined route systems of Frontier and Central in October, 1967.

Emblem from station agent's cap in 1970. Frontier's station agents were expected to do everything but fix'em or fly'em.
Duties included load/unloading aircraft, taking weather observations, processing passengers, computing weight&balance, acceptance of air freight and air express,
making reservations, maintaining radio communications with flights, and anything else that might come up.

Convair 580 takes off at Silver City, New Mexico. The CV580 was a CV340 equipped with GM Allison turbo-prop engines It seated 50 passengers and carried 2 pilots and 1 flight attendant. It could have held 53 seats but that would have required a 2nd F/A.

CV580 on the ramp at Kansas City. This aircraft had 3 cargo compartments: front belly, front top, and aft.

New service to St. Louis started a few months before the Central purchase.
Central already flew into the city from Oklahoma and Arkansas.

Frontier flew Boeing 727-100s and 727-200s and called them Arrow-Jets.

A mal-functioning throttle quadrant and reverser problem caused this Boeing 727-200, SN 7277F,
to go off the runway at St. Louis while landing on snow covered runway 24.
It happened Thursday, November 28, 1968 on Thanksgiving.
It took many men, railroad ties, and inflatable lifts to get it out of the mud.
Frontier folks always referred to it afterwards as the mud dawber.

Jake Lamkins