Pacific Southwest Airlines
| Pacific Southwest Airlines | |
|---|---|
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| IATA code : | PS |
| ICAO code : | PPE |
| Call sign : | PPE |
| Founding: | 1949 |
| Operation stopped: | 1988 |
| Seat: |
San Diego , United States
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| Home airport : | San Diego Airport |
| Fleet size: | 61 |
| Aims: | Western USA |
| Pacific Southwest Airlines ceased operations in 1988. The information in italics refer to the last status before the end of operation. | |
Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was an American airline based in San Diego (USA). It has been one of the most renowned and well-known airlines in America since it was founded in 1949 . PSA merged with USAir in 1987 .
history
The PSA was founded in 1949 with a leased Douglas DC-3 , which flew once a week at cheap prices from San Diego to Oakland via Burbank . A flight to Oakland (via Burbank) cost about $ 16 at the time. A converted latrine from the Second World War served as a ticket sales point . In 1951 the company crossed the San Francisco Bay and flew to the San Francisco International Airport . In 1955, two Douglas DC-4s were purchased from Capital Airlines and boxes were painted around the windows to make the aircraft look similar to the more modern Douglas DC-6 .
During the 1960s, PSA flew the San Diego-San Francisco route with Lockheed L-188 Electra aircraft . These were replaced by Boeing 727-214 and Boeing 737-214 at the end of the decade . Lockheed L-1011 were also used for a short time . However, these appeared to be too uneconomical and were therefore soon sold again. During the same period, the route network within California was expanded to include San Jose , Long Beach and Ontario . In 1980 a hub was built at Los Angeles International Airport , and PSA was the first US airline to put the MD-80 aircraft into regular service in December 1980. A total of 19 MD-81 and 12 MD-82 were delivered to PSA, which meant that the Boeing 727 fleet that had been in use up to now could be replaced within a very short time.
After the deregulation of the air market in the USA, the large national airlines PSA, Air California , Western Airlines and United Airlines fought an extreme price war. PSA began expanding its network beyond California's borders with flights to Reno, Nevada , Las Vegas , Salt Lake City, and Phoenix, Arizona , with brief flights to Mexico. When the attempt to buy up the assets of the bankrupt Braniff International failed, the route network was expanded to the northern states of Washington , Oregon and Idaho . The fleet was expanded to include BAe 146 regional aircraft to accommodate smaller airports on the west coast such as B. to fly to the Californian cities of Eureka and Concorde .
In 1987 PSA merged with US Airways (USAir). The last flight under PSA flight number took place on April 8, 1988. Then the route network of Pacific Southwest Airlines was gradually shut down and the aircraft relocated to the east coast. The operations center at San Diego Airport has been abandoned.
On November 1, 1995, US Airways renamed another subsidiary PSA Airlines to protect its trademark rights for the former Pacific Southwest Airlines.
Corporate culture
The company's founder, Ken Friedkin, adopted the company's motto, "The World's Friendliest Airline", to be the world's friendliest airline. He himself wore Hawaiian shirts and encouraged pilots and stewardesses to joke with passengers. The black stripe below the cockpit then became a distinguishing feature of the airline. It was decorated with a smiling face and was marketed in an advertising campaign as "Catch our smile".
In the 1960s, colorful stewardess uniforms were introduced, the skirt length of which was characterized by a pronounced minimalism. In the 1970s they switched to hot pants. A former PSA stewardess, Marilyn Tritt, wrote a book about her service hours and appropriately named it Long Legs and Short Nights ( ISBN 0-9649577-0-1 ).
The stewardesses were known to have a downright exaggerated approach to the passengers. This led to a fan culture among passengers. Frequent flyers brought something sweet, especially in the morning, and gave it to the pilots and stewardesses. Some of them, together with the stewardess Sandy Daniels, even organized themselves into the "Precious Stewardess Association". The PSA management responded with the "Precious Passenger Association", with which excellent, particularly friendly passengers were then thanked with free drinks.
Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher looked at some of PSA's experiences and adopted them for his budget airlines. Non-alcoholic drinks are free there and everyone can take two pieces of hand luggage with them. In comparison, however , later low-cost airlines switched to a no-frills concept .
Incidents
- The airline experienced a devastating setback in 1978 when Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 182 collided with a Cessna from Gibbs Flite Center (Montgomery Field) while approaching Lindbergh Field Airport in San Diego . Both machines crashed northeast of the airport in a residential area. The fully occupied Boeing 727 of the PSA crashed on Dwight Street at the corner of Boundary Street and exploded, the Cessna on the other hand in the neighborhood near University Avenue . The two crash sites were about 700 meters apart. 144 people died: 128 passengers, seven crew members, the two pilots of the Cessna and seven people who were on the street or in their homes at the time of the accident.
- On December 7, 1987, the recently laid-off PSA employee David Burke crashed a machine on Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 in which his former supervisor was sitting.
See also
Web links
- The history of PPE in words and pictures in English ( Memento from July 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- Pictures of the crashed plane on Airliners.net
Individual evidence
- ↑ December 7, 1987: Paso Robles, USA. (No longer available online.) Jan-Arwed Richter, archived from the original on October 18, 2013 ; Retrieved May 22, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
