PSA Airlines Still Exists

Above, a PSA Airlines 727-200 jet. Wikipedia Photo.

Back in the 1970s, whenever I flew around California (usually for GOP state conventions) or to Las Vegas, Nevada, I often flew with PSA Airlines or Western Airlines. My first flight was with PSA Airlines from San Jose, California to LAX in 1974. 

I was using Google to read about PSA (short for Pacific Southwest Airlines) after reading about the current troubles with Spirit Airlines and found that the airline still exists.

Above, yours truly about to board a PSA Airlines plane in 1974. Photo by Max Bettman.

According to the AI-generated overviews: 

Does PSA Airlines still exist?

Yes, PSA Airlines still exists and is a major, growing regional airline operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group. It operates under the American Eagle brand, focusing on short-haul flights with a fleet of Bombardier CRJ jets, operating over 700 daily flights to nearly 100 destinations.  

PSA Airlines originally stands for Pacific Southwest Airlines, a prominent West Coast carrier founded in 1949 and known as "The World's Friendliest Airline". Today, PSA Airlines operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Airlines Group, using the historic name to protect the trademark. 

 

20 Defunct U.S. Airlines

Above, yours truly about to board a PSA jet in San Jose in 1974. Photo by Max Bettman.

Remember when air travel was like an event?  During those days, passengers dressed up, enjoyed meals and cocktails and had great service.

Nowadays, air travel is more like being herded like cattle and not being treated better than cattle.

Above, Max Bettman and I inside a PSA jet in 1974. Photo by Mitch Geriminsky.

Many airlines have gone out of business or have merged with others. Daily Passport has listed 20 defunct U.S. airlines. There's two on the list that I had flown with: Western Airlines and Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). I had been inside a TWA Boeing 747, but never flown with them. Since I used to live near LAX, friends and I went to TWA's maintenance yard there one night in 1970 and we were allowed to tour inside one of their new Boeing 747s.

The article begins with: 

The U.S. airline industry is more consolidated than ever before. The so-called “Big Four” airlines — American, Delta, Southwest, and United — now control nearly three-quarters of the U.S. market. But that wasn’t always the case. After the federal government deregulated airlines in 1978, a rainbow of airplane tail colors could be seen at airports across the country. Over the years, many of these airlines merged with larger carriers, while over 100 airlines went bankrupt. Take a trip down memory lane and learn more about 20 defunct U.S. airlines you might remember flying at some point.

To read the full article, go here.

Flying With Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) In 1974

Above, yours truly about to board a "PSA Grinningbird" in San Jose.

This morning, I scanned some photos from April 1974 of the first airplane flight I took.

It was aboard a Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) Boeing 737 or Boeing 727, I don't exactly remember which. Max Bettman, Mitch Geriminsky and I were returning to Los Angeles from a Republican State Central Committee Convention in San Jose in which then-Vice President Gerald R. Ford was the headliner.

Above, Max Bettman and your truly aboard the PSA jet.

In our Hawthorne High School alumni Facebook page, I started a discussion on PSA. I scanned the accompanying photos to post in the discussion. 

Above, Mitch Geriminsky. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

On PSA, according to Wikipedia:

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was a United States airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1988. It was the first large discount airline in the United States. PSA called itself "The World's Friendliest Airline" and painted a smile on the nose of its airplanes, the PSA Grinningbirds. Opinion L.A. of the Los Angeles Times called PSA "practically the unofficial flag carrier airline of California for almost forty years."

The airline initially operated as an intrastate airline wholly within the state of California. This strategy which avoided the steep costs from federal regulation would later serve as the model for Southwest Airlines, doing in Texas what PSA had done in California. After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, PSA expanded to cities in other western states, and eventually to several cities in Mexico.

In 1986 PSA became the first of two airlines that merged into the existing USAir, followed by Piedmont Airlines in 1987. The PSA acquisition was completed in 1988. USAir changed its name to US Airways in 1997. In 2005, after its second bankruptcy filing, America West Airlines acquired US Airways, continuing with the name until it merged with American Airlines in 2015.

Above, a shot of a PSA stewardess. Photo by Max Bettman.