Midwest Express, Inc. history

1987:Company begins consistent profitability.

By 1988, the company was making a profit, and it was in the black year after year from then on.

By 1989, it was the third largest carrier flying out of Milwaukee, and its direct flights took it to 15 cities.

By 1993, Midwest Express was only the 24th largest airline in the United States, with revenues of $165 million.

The new airline took off in July 1994 utilizing Boeing 737 jetliners.

In an article in Forbes from October 23, 1995, Hoeksema declared: 'When you have an industry with dissatisfied customers, you have a business opportunity.' In other words, as things got worse for the larger carriers, Midwest would still make money.

The booming economy, good weather brought by the warm weather pattern El Nino, and a dip in fuel costs combined to bring the company's stock to an all-time high in February 1998. It was still possible for the carrier to have an unprofitable quarter, such as a bad period in May and June of 1996, when unusual fogginess around Milwaukee caused the airline to cancel a record 750 flights.

ALPA won out after elections in December 1997, and the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) began organizing roughly a year later.

Negotiations for the first pilots' contract began in August 1998, and a federal mediator was called in the next March.

The airline also has a smaller hub in Omaha, Nebraska, and a third hub is in development for the year 2000.

By 2001, the new Frontier Airlines was on Fortune magazine's list of fastest-growing companies.

In 2002, inflight meals were dropped from flights as a way to save money, but fresh baked cookies would remain.

In April 2005, Frontier Airlines officially became an all-Airbus fleet, retiring its last Boeing 737.

The airline quickly began adding Boeing 717s to the fleet to replace the aging DC-9 fleet, and along with AirTran took delivery of the last Boeing 717s delivered in 2006.

In 2007 Midwest began a codeshare agreement with Northwest Airlines that helped them add 250 new routes for Midwest customers.

Midwest also began removing the Boeing 717’ from the fleet, reducing them to just nine aircraft in 2008.

In 2011, World Travel Awards, the travel industry awards program that has been described by the Wall Street Journal as the “Oscars of the Travel Industry”, named Frontier Airlines “North America’s Leading Low-Cost Airline”.

In 2012, Frontier Airlines introduced onboard Wi-Fi on the airline’s Embraer 190 fleet.

In July 2013, Frontier Airlines announced new nonstop seasonal service between Denver and Montego Bay, Jamaica, with weekly nonstop flights beginning on December 22, 2013.