Chautauqua Airlines had been operating feeder flights on behalf of Midwest Airlines and began service for Frontier with the merger of Frontier and Midwest in October of 2010. Chautauqua operated up to 12 Embraer 135 and Embraer 145 jets out of Milwaukee. Frontier began branding these flights as Frontier Express in the spring of 2011. New service began in 2011 on three subsidized Essential Air Service routes to the cities of Rhinelander, Wisconsin as well as Ironwood and Manistee, Michigan. However Frontier almost immediately began a pull-down of the Milwaukee hub and by the end of 2012 the only route that continued to operate with a Frontier Express ERJ-145 jet was Milwaukee to Rhinelander. Service to Rhinelander ended on January 3, 2013, and Chautauqua transferred the remaining aircraft to other partners.