UTOPIA AIRPORT: BIRTH OF FRONTIER AIRLINES

FRONTIER AIRLINES was formed by the merger/amalgametion of three local airlines : Arizona Arways, Challenger Airlines and Monarch Airlines

ARIZONA AIRWAYS

Was founded in 1942 and started flying on March 17, 1946 with a fleet of 3 Douglas DC3. it was federally certificated as a local service carrier to fly smaller routes in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB). However the airline incurred huge losses and was forced to shut down on March 1,1948. In June 1949, Monarch Airlines stepped s in to acquire Arizona Airways and the CAB approved the acquisition on Aprril 10 1950, by April 26 the airline was fully merged with Monarch Airlines

From the collection of Bjorn Larsson @ timetableimages.com

The total route length was 729 km stretching from Kingman to Nogales

We can notice that the actual route map is different from the one on the timetable as many destinations stopped to be served by ARIZONA AW : Grand Canyon, Winslow, Yuma, Miami/Globe, Safford, Clifton and Willcox, illustrating, the early difficulties faced by small local airlines.

CHALLLENGER AIRLINES

The cimpany has been known as SUMMIT AIRLINES ( a Fixed Based Operator, incorporated om 31/12/1941), On March 28, 1946, the CAB granted Summit to fly between each of Salt Lake City, Billings, MT, and Denver, CO, with intermediate stops in Wyoming.

A separate company, Challenger Airlines, a Utah intrastate airline, was an unsuccessful applicant in the same CAB case that certificated Summit . Unable to secure CAB certification for their Utah carrier, the shareholders shut it down in November 1946. They then bought Summit (which had yet to launch airline operations) at the beginning of 1947 and renamed it Challenger.

From the collection of Bjorn Larsson @ timetableimages.com

This timetable issued in May 1.1947 does not reflct the actual netwirk of the airline but of its predecessor Summit Airlines

Route mileage 806 km

The new Challenger Airlines started operations on May 3, 1947 with 28-seat DC-3s.By then the company had moved to Salt Lake City.The airline had four DC3s at the time of the merger: NC65135, NC65385, NC53376, and NC65276. They became Frontier Sunliners Montana, Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota

From the collection of Bjorn Larsson @ timetableimages.com

The route mileage reaches 2330 km

MONARCH AIRLINES

The company started its operations on November 27, 1946 with a flight from Denver to Durango with additional destinations added later : Grand Junction, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City.

Monarch operated five Douglas DC-3 aircraft at the time of the merger: NC64421, NC64422, NC64423, NC64424, and NC66610. They became Frontier "Sunliners" named Arizona, New Mexico, Royal Gorge, Mesa Verde and Utah.

May 15, 1950. The CAB approved the consolidation-merger of Monarch Airlines Inc., Challenger Airlines Company, and Arizona Airways, to form Frontier Airlines.