PSA Trims L.A. to S.F. Flights From 31 to 19

Pacific Southwest Airlines, which built its reputation by providing frequent flights along the California air corridor, has dropped 12 of its 31 daily flights each way between Los Angeles and San Francisco and does not plan to reinstate any more of them than “is consistent with . . . profit objectives.”

The cutbacks, which took place Feb. 17, were linked by a spokesman for USAir Group, which now owns San Diego-based PSA, to the closure for reconstruction of one of Los Angeles International Airport’s four main runways.

But USAir, which will fully incorporate PSA into its operations early next month, “will not go back to 31 flights a day when construction is completed,” said Randall Malin, USAir’s executive vice president for marketing.

USAir, described by many as the nation’s most profitable airline, will “fly the amount of service that is consistent with our profit objectives,” Malin said.

The reduction in flights by USAir runs counter to PSA’s historical goal of providing ever-increasing service between the two airports. PSA last cut back on flight frequencies during the 1970s when it was saddled with a fuel-guzzling fleet but by 1985 it had re-established itself as a provider of high-frequency service along the corridor.

Costly Market Battle

That ever-increasing level of service was driven largely by PSA’s long-running fight for West Coast market share with Orange County-based AirCal and United Air Lines.

That fight, Malin said, generated “very intense competition at unsatisfactory load factors with nobody making any money. The regional airlines all fought for market share. There were too many flights and nobody was making any money.”

However, “a major change took place when the regional carriers were taken over by major national carriers,” Malin said. AirCal was bought and absorbed by American Airlines last year.

USAir “is not going to engage in battles just to win share of the market if it means losing money,” Malin said.

Separately Monday, PSA announced that it had carried 735,000 passengers during February, down 9.1% from the 809,000 passengers carried in February, 1987. During January, the airline carried 758,000 passengers, down by 9.5% from the 838,000 passengers carried during January, 1987.

Malin linked the drop in PSA’s passenger count to American’s ability to offer advanced seat selection and boarding passes. He added that PSA will be able to offer those amenities after the airline is incorporated into USAir.

American Airlines declined to provide specific figures for its operations in the California air corridor, but a spokesman said the airline “has gained a little market share since the merger” with AirCal.

Airline industry observers give credit to USAir for having a good understanding of the short-haul airline business. In the East, where most of its flights occur, half of its passengers are on flights of two hours or less.

Travelers May Fuss

“Their (short-haul) formula has been very successful for them in the East and obviously they’re going to want to try it out” in the West, suggested George James, president of Airline Economics, an aviation consulting firm in Washington.

But James cautioned that travelers on the West Coast, who have grown accustomed to rate wars and ever-increasing flight frequencies, might be disappointed by the shape of the new competition between American and USAir.

“USAir is the most profitable carrier in the industry,” James observed. “They’re very bottom line oriented and so is American. So you’ll have two of the most profitable carriers in the business competing against each other.”

That bottom line orientation “is the name of the game in the industry today,” he added.