Central Airlines

  1944 to October1967

  United States of America

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TYPE: Scheduled Airline

IATA/ICAO CODES: CN / ---

HEADQUARTERS: Fort Worth Meacham, TX

FORMER NAME: Nil

SUBSEQUENT NAME: Frontier Airlines (purchased 1967)

Central was a scheduled passenger and mail carrier serving Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. It was founded in 1944 by Keith Kahle as an FBO and charter airline in Tulsa, OK. The first charter flight took place in 1946 using Beech A35 Bonanzas. Scheduled operations started on 15 September 1949, initially throughout Oklahoma and Texas from its new Fort Worth, TX headquarters.

The fleet of 11 Bonanzas was phased out in 1949 in favor of the Douglas DC3, which themselves were superseded in 1960 by Convair CV240s. The later were upgraded to turboprop engines in 1965 as CV600s.

By 1966 Central was serving 50 destinations throughout Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado. It was acquired by Frontier in October 1967.

April 1951 to August 1951

Central briefly operated a single Commando in 1951. Given the short timeframe that the aircraft stayed with Central, it is possible it was never operated commercially.

• Curtiss C-46A-55-CK Commando: N3918C