Pacific Southwest Airlines
Pacific Southwest Airlines (
PSA) was an
airline headquartered in
San Diego, California. It is one of the four heritage airlines that form
US Airways, the other airlines being
America West Airlines,
Piedmont Airlines and
Allegheny Airlines. America West and US Airways announced their merger in 2005, while the other mergers occurred in the 1980's. Prior to its merger, PSA was one of the first large
discount airlines in the
United States and is considered a precursor to
Southwest Airlines. Its
Boeing customer number was 14. Following the merger with USAir, the PSA name was given to
Jetstream International Airlines in order to preserve the PSA name and copyrights.
The airline was founded in
1949 with a leased
Douglas DC-3 that flew one weekly round trip from San Diego to
Oakland via
Burbank. Reservations were initially taken from a
World War II surplus latrine refitted as a ticket office. In
1951, PSA crossed the
San Francisco Bay and began flying to
San Francisco. In
1955, PSA purchased two
Douglas DC-4 aircraft from
Capital Airlines and painted boxes around the windows to make the planes resemble the more advanced
Douglas DC-6.
During the 1960s, PSA operated
Lockheed L-188 Electra aircraft on the San Diego-San Francisco route: these were replaced with
Boeing 727-214 and
Boeing 737-214s by the end of the decade. In the mid-1970s, PSA briefly operated
Lockheed L-1011 aircraft before deeming them unprofitable and selling them. PSA expanded its service to
Sacramento,
San Jose,
Long Beach, and
Ontario, California during this period, and by
1980 was operating a hub at
Los Angeles International Airport.
After
airline deregulation,
California's major intrastate airlines (PSA,
Air California,
Western Airlines and
United Airlines) became embroiled in intense airfare wars. PSA attempted to extend its route network beyond California with flights to
Reno,
Las Vegas,
Salt Lake City, and
Phoenix. The airline also introduced automated ticketing and check-in machines at several major airports, and briefly operated flights to
Mexico. When PSA's plan to buy out the assets of
Dallas-Ft. Worth-based
Braniff International Airways fell flat, the airline expanded its route network north to
Washington,
Oregon and
Idaho. PSA used a new fleet of
BAe 146 regional jets to serve smaller airports on the West Coast, such as
Eureka, California and
Concord, California.
In
1986, Western and AirCal were purchased by out-of-state airlines (
Delta Air Lines and
American Airlines respectively). Some believe USAir was actually pursuing AirCal because of fleet commonality — i.e. 737-300s — but that American Airlines spoiled the deal and PSA was its second choice. Upon hearing that USAir was interested in AirCal, American Airlines aggressively courted the AirCal Board of Directors. It made more sense for American Airlines to purchase PSA due to fleet commonality, but American Airlines was determined not to concede market share. Therefore, many believe the American/AirCal deal was essentially an attempt to impede USAir's expansion. However, this plan did not work.
An hour after the AirCal deal was announced, PSA agreed to merge with
USAir, which was completed in
1987. PSA's last flight took place on
April 8,
1988. The PSA route network slowly disintegrated within USAir and was completely gone by
1994: most of the former airline's assets were scrapped or moved to USAir's hubs on the East Coast. PSA's operations base at
San Diego International Airport was gutted and now serves as that airport's commuter terminal.
In the
San Diego Aerospace Museum, there is a display showcasing PSA, the city's hometown airline.
PSA was one of the sponsors of the original
The Dating Game TV show on
ABC from 1965-73.
Following the
2005 merger of US Airways and America West, a US Airways
Airbus A319 was repainted in PSA's
livery as one of four heritage aircraft commemorating the airlines that merged to form the present-day US Airways. The aircraft was dedicated at San Diego International Airport's commuter terminal on
March 30,
2006.
At the time, PSA was known for its sense of humor. Its slogan was "The World's Friendliest Airline," and its recognizable trademark was a smile painted on the nose of each plane and an accompanying ad campaign declaring "Catch Our Smile." After PSA was bought by USAir, ex-PSA mechanics would occasionally paint smiles on USAir planes as a joke.
During the seventies, PSA was also known for its brightly-colored and extremely short
flight attendant uniforms. One PSA flight attendant, Marilyn Tritt, wrote a book about her tenure at the company titled
Long Legs and Short Nights (ISBN 0964957701).
Southwest Airlines founder
Herb Kelleher studied PSA extensively and used many of the airline's ideas to form the corporate culture at Southwest.
*On
September 25,
1978,
PSA Flight 182, on a
Sacramento-
Los Angeles-
San Diego route, was on final approach to San Diego's
Lindbergh Field when it collided with a
Cessna 172 on a training flight. Both planes crashed in the city's North Park section, killing all 128 passengers and 7 crew members aboard the PSA jetliner, both occupants of the Cessna and 7 people on the ground. Nine others on the ground were injured and 22 homes were destroyed or damaged. The accident, with a death toll of 144, was the worst air disaster in
San Diego County history as well as the worst California air disaster to date.
*On
December 7,
1987,
PSA Flight 1771, bound from
Los Angeles International Airport to
San Francisco International Airport, was cruising above the central California coast when it suddenly entered a high-speed nosedive and crashed on a cattle ranch near the small town of
Cayucos. Investigations determined that a disgruntled
USAir employee, recently fired for theft, had armed himself and boarded the flight, which was carrying his former supervisor. After writing a suicide note on an air sickness bag, the man shot his ex-supervisor, both pilots and then himself, causing the airplane to crash. All 43 aboard the ill-fated jetliner perished.
In the late 1990s and up through 2001, there was another company called PSA Inc. and did business as PSAZZ. They had a web site at www.psazz.com, but that site no longer exists. They also were publically traded on the Nasdaq OTC under the PSAX symbol. The company used very similar graphics and fonts as the original PSA. Google searches revealed plans to operate a travel company.
At one point, in the late 1990s, the company was supposedly going to relaunch the airline, using many of the old routes. Those plans never came to fruition and the company is no longer operating. Regardless, any plans to relaunch PSA as a low-cost, regional carrier would likely be met with swith opposition from US Airways, which owns the trademark.
*
The PSA History Museum - Dedicated to preserving the history of one of PSA
*
Catch Our Smile - Extensive history and images of PSA
*
PSA history page
