PSA Completes Merger With USAir, Will Fade From Scene by Year’s End

Pacific Southwest Airlines, which began offering passenger service on the West Coast in 1949 with a single DC-3 airplane, was acquired Friday by USAir Group in a deal valued at $385 million. USAir and PSA have been working to complete the acquisition since the deal was first announced last December.

San Diego-based PSA will operate as a separate subsidiary of USAir until the end of the year, after which flight operations of the two airlines will be merged. The resulting carrier will have 204 aircraft and 21,127 employees, and provide service to 107 airports in 37 states, Canada and Mexico.

USAir also has agreed to acquire Piedmont Aviation for $1.6 billion. If completed, that acquisition would make USAir the nation’s seventh-largest airline, with 364 airplanes, 38,760 employees and service to 236 airports. The Transportation Department is reviewing that proposed acquisition.

San Diego-based PS Group, PSA’s former holding company, will become an independent firm, with airplane leasing and oil and gas exploration operations.