Pacific Southwest Airlines

This article is about the airline that operated from 1949 to 1988. For the current American Airlines regional subsidiary, see PSA Airlines. For the present day airline based in Dallas, Texas, see Southwest Airlines. For the airline that currently uses the IATA Code PS, see Ukraine International Airlines.
Pacific Southwest Airlines
IATA ICAO Call sign
PS PSA PSA
Commenced operations6 May 1949; 75 years ago (1949-05-06)[1]
Ceased operations9 April 1988; 36 years ago (1988-04-09)
(merged into USAir)
Hubs
Parent company
  • PSA, Inc. (1973–1986)
  • PS Group, Inc. (1986–1987)
  • USAir (1987–1988)
HeadquartersSan Diego, California, United States
Key peopleKenny Friedkin
J. Floyd Andrews

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was a low-cost US airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1988. It was the first substantial scheduled discount airline. PSA called itself "The World's Friendliest Airline" and painted a smile on the nose of its airplanes, the PSA Grinningbirds.[2] The Los Angeles Times called PSA "practically the unofficial flag carrier airline of California for almost forty years."[3]

For three quarters of its existence, PSA operated as a California intrastate airline. PSA's early success as an intrastate airline served as a model for Southwest Airlines, which did in Texas what PSA had done in California.[4] After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, PSA expanded to cities in other US western states and Mexico. However, PSA's performance in the new deregulated era was disappointing relative to that of Southwest and PSA's former fellow California intrastate carrier AirCal.

In 1986, USAir agreed to purchase PSA, the transaction closed in 1987 and PSA was integrated into USAir in 1988. The PSA acquisition gave USAir a network on the West Coast, but by 1991 USAir had largely withdrawn from California in the face of fierce fare wars driven, in significant part, by the spread of Southwest. Today's American Airlines Group continues to protect the PSA trademark by using it as a name for a regional airline subsidiary, PSA Airlines. PSA did not survive for long after deregulation, but its influence lives on through the continued success of Southwest.

  1. ^ Low Fare Magic: The Twenty-year Success Story of Pacific Southwest Airlines Reprinted from Esso Air World - November/December 1969
  2. ^ "PSA". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (advertisement). June 1, 1983. p. A9.
  3. ^ "Southwest Airlines has a flashback – emphasis flash." Los Angeles Times. March 3, 2009. Retrieved on February 18, 2010.
  4. ^ Voices of San Antonio: Herb Kelleher (Dec 2017 interview, published to YouTube on Mar 29, 2018)