Ex-PSA Executives Call USAir Merger Bad Fit From Start

SAN DIEGO —  Pacific Southwest Airlines relied on frequent flights, low fares and a free-wheeling corporate style to become a California institution during the 1970s.

During the holidays, PSA flight attendants dressed up as Christmas trees. Others stunned travelers during the early 1970s by donning brilliant orange miniskirts. Even the airplanes wore smiles. And employees all seemed to exhibit a laid-back attitude that made many passengers think of San Diego-based PSA as The California Airline.

But all the smiles and good cheer had not made PSA profitable. It ended every year from 1979 to 1986 in the red. Apparently, USAir concluded that it could not do better with no-nonsense, button-down management and an extensive schedule of flights throughout the state.

On Friday, USAir--which acquired PSA in 1987 for $400 million--appeared to throw in the towel by announcing it would eliminate most of its flights within California. Competition and high fuel costs were causing big losses, the carrier said.

But former PSA executives interviewed Friday said Arlington, Va.-based USAir failed to make the grade in the competitive California air corridor largely because the East Coast airline, with its stiff corporate culture, jettisoned PSA’s easy-going style.

“They were arrogant East Coast guys who came to town with their white shirts, red ties and blue suits,” said a former PSA executive who declined to be named because he still has business dealings with USAir. “They said, ‘We don’t need you guys with the paisley ties and the two-tone shirts.’ ”

USAir, he said, “gave me and a lot of other guys a heck of a lot of money to just go away” after the merger. “They thought they knew better than us. . . . They didn’t need us.”

When USAir acquired PSA, the San Diego-based airline controlled much of the California market.

But former PSA executives said USAir lost that franchise when it cut back on PSA’s hallmarks of frequent flights and low fares.

USAir also upset California travelers and PSA employees when it wiped the smiles off PSA’s fabled “Smileliners.”

PSA’s upbeat corporate style belied other troubles in addition to its financial losses. The airline was shaken by the 1978 crash of one if its jets in San Diego. The accident, which claimed 144 lives, was caused by a mid-air collision with a private, single-engine plane as the jetliner approached arrival at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field.

A second crash of a PSA jet near Paso Robles in December, 1987, claimed 43 lives. Investigators said the jet bound from Los Angeles to San Francisco crashed shortly after a recently dismissed PSA employee named David A. Burke forced his way into the cockpit during the flight and shot the air crew. All aboard were killed.

Prior to the USAir takeover, PSA--whose employees thought of the airline as an extended family--was known for its lighthearted approach to flying. About all that is left of the lightheartedness is a licensing deal. USAir recently leased the right to use the nose-cone smiles to Statewest Airlines, a small, Phoenix-based airline that operates a “USAir Express” service for the larger carrier.