A low-cost carrier, it was formed in 1994 under the name Commercial Air, later changed to Western Pacific, and began operating scheduled passenger flights on April 28, 1995, with eight Boeing 737-300s.

[1][2] Originally based at Colorado Springs Airport, Western Pacific routes were mainly west of the Mississippi River.

During the episode, “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” of The Simpsons, callers who phoned in with the correct answer won free air travel or other prizes.

[citation needed] Western Pacific was involved with the creation of a new commuter airline, Mountain Air Express (MAX), which began operations in 1996 flying Dornier 328 turboprops.

While Western Pacific's Colorado Springs hub had initially been successful and was beginning to divert traffic away from Denver, by 1997 the airline had not made a profit in two years of operation.

Western Pacific executives decided to move the hub from Colorado Springs to Denver International Airport in 1997.

[3] A day after the move to Denver was completed, Western Pacific announced it would purchase the competing Denver-based Frontier Airlines (another new start up air carrier which initiated scheduled passenger flights during the 1990s and used the same name as the original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) which in turn had acquired Continental's former gates at the Denver International Airport.