Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was an airline based in San Diego, California, and one of the first large discount airlines in the United States.

History

The airline started business in 1949 with a leased DC-3 that flew one weekly round trip from San Diego to Oakland via Burbank. Reservations were initially taken from a 6 foot by 12 foot war-surplus latrine that was refitted to serve as a ticket office. In 1951, PSA crossed the 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 DC-4's resemble more advanced Douglas DC-6's.

During the 1960s, PSA operated Lockheed L-188 Electra aircraft on the San Diego-San Francisco route: these were replaced with Boeing 727 and Boeing 737 aircraft by the end of the decade. In the mid-1970s, PSA briefly operated Lockheed L-1011 aircraft before deeming them unprofitable and selling them off. PSA expanded its service to Sacramento, San Jose, Long Beach, and Ontario during this period, and by 1980 was operating a hub at Los Angeles International Airport as well.

After airline deregulation, California's major intrastate airlines (PSA, Air California, Western Airlines, and United Airlines) were engaged in intense fare 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-based Braniff International fell flat, the airline expanded its route network northward 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, both Western and Air Cal were purchased by out-of-state airlines (Delta Air Lines and American Airlines respectively). An hour after the Air Cal deal was announced, PSA agreed to a merger 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 on PSA.

Corporate culture

PSA was renowned 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. 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 stewardess uniforms. One stewardess wrote a book about her tenure at the company, called 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.

See also: PSA Flight 182, PSA Flight 1771

External link

• PSA history page