in 1974. In an effort to expand passenger airline service, the current passenger terminal was built in 1987. United Parcel Service opened the first of two cargo facilities at the airport in 1994. While its centralized location in northern Illinois was a selling point for cargo service, scheduled passenger airline service struggled, ending in 2001. In the 1980s and 1990s, Rockford had passenger service to O'Hare Airport, but many passengers considered bus service or driving to Chicago a viable alternative. In 2003, the airport restored passenger service; instead of offering regional service to Chicago or elsewhere in the Midwest, the airport presented itself as an alternative for leisure-based travelers, offering low-cost flights to Florida. Coleman Air Transport had a small hub at RFD in the late 1970s with Grumman Gulfstream Is and was planning to introduce Douglas DC-9-10 nonstop to New York LaGuardia Airport before losing its operating certificate and going out of business. The first airline flights were on Mid-Continent Airlines in 1950. Successor Braniff pulled out in 1955, leaving Ozark, which had arrived in 1951. Ozark Douglas DC-9-10s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s flew nonstop to Chicago O'Hare Airport and direct to Denver in 1976. TWA flew Boeing 727s Rockford to Chicago O'Hare for a couple years starting May 1980. McClain Airlines Boeing 727-100s flew nonstop to Chicago O'Hare. The original Frontier Airlines (1950-1986) Boeing 737-200s served Rockford from 1984 until late 1986 nonstop to Cedar Rapids, Madison and Milwaukee and direct to Denver when the operation was transferred to Britt Airways which flew turboprops for a short time. Direct Air served the airport until March 2012. The current version of Frontier offered mainline service to Denver until 2013. It also offered several charter flights, on behalf of Apple Vacations. The airport got its first control tower in the 1950s with the expansion of services from Braniff, Mid-Continent, and Ozark. Radar was installed in the tower in the 1970s, and the airport soon began operating 24/7. Apple Vacations offered scheduled flights to the vacation destinations of Cancún, Montego Bay, and Punta Cana for many years, through operators such as Norwegian Air Shuttle and TUI Airways. In an effort to capitalize on its location (less than from downtown Chicago and about from the outermost Chicago suburbs), the Greater Rockford Airport underwent several name changes in the 2000s. Initially changing to the Northwest Chicagoland Regional Airport at Rockford in the early