Pacific Southwest Airlines, or PSA for short, was an intra-state California based airline that was founded in 1949 by Kenny Friedkin. Its first route was San Diego to Oakland via Burbank using the venerable Douglas DC-3.
The airline pioneered many of the elements we see today in budget airlines. In fact, Herb Kelleher studied PSA closely as a model for his subsequently very successful Southwest Airlines. That model was copied by Michael O’Leary of Ryanair, so the DNA of the California airline has really gone global.
A Video About PSA
Following the last video about Eastern Airlines, we stay in the USA this time around and look at PSA. This runs for a little under 15 minutes and gives a decent history of the airline and what happened to it.
Apart from the fact the narrator calls the British Aerospace 146 a “BEA 146” instead of a “BAe 146” each time that aircraft is mentioned, it’s otherwise a well put together presentation. It touches on all the pertinent parts of the airline’s story.
What is not mentioned about the PSA Lockheed L-1011 TriStar in the video is the fact that these featured unique lower deck lounges. The modification actually made it difficult for resale of the aircraft when the airline no longer needed them.
Of course, in the end the smiling aircraft of the California airline were absorbed into the far less interesting USAir. What a shame PSA is not around today.
Overall Thoughts
I’ve been lucky enough to read the book “Poor Sailors’ Airline: The Story of Kenny Friedkin’s Pacific Southwest Airlines” by Gary Kissel. It sounds like the airline had a real family vibe and that attitude passed on to the passengers, who really loved flying with the outfit.
The pioneering attitude of the airline and the innovations it introduced have lasted through to today. I really like that fact, though most of these are incorrectly attributed to Southwest Airlines!
Did you ever fly with PSA and if you did, what were they like? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via the San Diego Air and Space Museum on Flickr.
We flew it all the time as kinds in the 70’s & 80’s, back and forth between So. & No. California….. Lots of times as unacompanied minors! It was alot of fun and flight crews were always fun. Especially the blonde haired flight attendants in their “70’s appropriate” dresses. I saw a retro painted AA plane at DCA last year in PSA Livery. It brought back those great memories!! 🙂
Sounds like it was a really fun experience, which is good to hear and fits in with what I’ve always heard. Fantastic you got to do that!
Yea, when airlines were mostly stodgy and all so important as we’re-doing-important work, PSA had it right. We’re a tomorrowland-ride when tomorrowland wasa thing. Fares were always reasonable, no purchase on the plane but easy to book and it being CA where the weather was nice 355 days a year, on time and easy. Yea, boring US Air was a terrible takeover but that was back in the day where a branding of “Pacific” meant you confused people if you flew anywhere other than the west coast … after a year or two of huge price hikes ($99 to LA from SF from $29), Southwest took over from PSA and everything dropped back to as if PSA never left.
Thanks for that, interesting to hear what happened after the takeover and before Southwest arrived.
Flew them all the time. Walkup fares were cheap. Service great most of the time. My office is right next to their old reservation center. Building is still there. Now SAN is eliminating their legacy by tearing down the old PSA hangar/HQ. How USAir trashed them and their customers after the acquisition was a business crime of the highest order.
Great to hear you used to fly with them. I did hear that USAir basically threw everything out that PSA had built, which is a crying shame.
US Air should have kept the PSA name and replaced their name with PSA. In that rare scenario, however, PSA wouldn’t still survive because when USAir/America West took over American, I would have favored dropping the PSA name in favor of TWA, which I slightly prefer over AA.
I flew aboard PSA twice on their MD80. It was fine. I also flew aboard the BAe 146 or RJ85 with Northwest Airlink/Mesaba, United Express/Air Wisconsin, TriStar (a US carrier), and KLMuk.
I can see why they kept the USAir name though, as it sort of encompasses more of the country than PSA, but still. You are right in that it would probably be gone today at any rate, after all the subsequent mergers and so on.
I flew on PSA a number of times. They would have a flight every hour between Los Angeles and San Francisco and vice versa. Airfare either way was $16.50. The last flight of the day, which left around midnight, was called the Midnight Flyer, and airfare was all of $11.80! This was in the early to mid ’80’s and the route was flown by B727-200’s. It was also first come, first serve. You bought a general ticket, but no seat and even space was assigned or guaranteed. I took the Midnight Flyer only one time, but PSA set the standard for me that night. I was traveling with friends, and when we arrived at the gate, there were what appeared to be way more people in line than the plane could hold. Sure enough, with 60 or 70 still in line in front of us, the gate closed. No one got out of line though, even as we watched the plane push off from the gate. Amazingly enough, as soon as the gate was clear, another 727 was pulled in. The gate reopened shortly thereafter, and the rest of us still in line boarded and flew home that night! Only airline I’ve ever seen do this, and I really missed them once they were absorbed by US Airways.
What an experience that Midnight Flyer must have been! I know British Airways used to bring out the backup aircraft for their Super Shuttle flights within the UK if there were more passengers than seats, and I think it happened with the Eastern Shuttle as well. I can imagine everyone was quite happy to get home that night. Great information there, thanks so much for sharing it!
Never flew PSA but a few of their DC-9-30’s made their way to Ozark/TWA and retained the N###PS registrations. I did fly on one or two of those operated by their new airline.
Oh I didn’t know some of their aircraft had gone to Ozark/TWA. Something to add to the database in my head!
I think this was the airline that had been known for — ask the steward if she was a member of the “turtle club” and the reply would be – you bet your sweat ass I am and then………………….
Haha – I’ve heard the American astronauts were also into this turtle thing as well 🙂