Frontier Airlines was a United States airline formed from a merger of Arizona Airways, Challenger Airlines, and Monarch Airlines on June 1, 1950. It established its 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.
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