Originally Posted by jlemon

American certainly tried to expand their presence in California, first by acquiring AirCal and later by acquiring Reno Air (which despite its name was operating a small hub at San Jose during the late 1990's). However, in both cases nothing much resulted from these efforts. American also partnered with Wings West with this commuter air carrier becoming the American Eagle affiliate in California. Meantime, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was acquired by USAir in order to expand their presence in California but nothing much resulted from this effort by US as well.

Which brings us to Southwest. It's interesting to note that Southwest management folks visited with Pacific Southwest at the PSA corporate headquarter in San Diego back when WN was still just a small airline. The Southwest folks no doubt learned quite a bit from their counterparts with PSA. So with AirCal, Reno Air and PSA no longer around and American and USAir apparently struggling with their respective expansion plans in California and the western U.S., Southwest simply did what they do best....they introduced "The Southwest Effect" on the west coast.

Delta tried to expand in California as well following their acquisition of Western. Back when the Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia and Metro III propjets were the only aircraft types operated by SkyWest, this then small commuter airline was the Delta Connection air carrier in California and the western U.S. However, Delta's expansion plans back at that time did not quite work out as well with SkyWest subsequently becoming the United Express air carrier in California.

As you may recall, I worked for a couple of small commuter air carriers that were based in California (and later for Alaska Airlines in California) many years ago. Those were interesting times for the airline industry in the Golden State.