Pacific Southwest

The Pacific Southwest is a region of the United States. It encompasses five states: California, Arizona, Hawaii, Utah, and Nevada. The region is one of cultural diversity seen all over. Several major urban areas lie within the region, including the San Francisco Bay Area and Salt Lake City. With the exception of Hawaii, four of the five states share similar historical backgrounds.

Largest cities

Culture

Cultures combine and collaborate in the Pacific Southwest. Traces of the Old American West can still be seen in some areas, especially in the deserts. Hip-hop is one of the many cultures prevalent here, most noticeable in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. Polynesian culture flourishes in Hawaii, and Hawaiian Pidgin can still be heard in certain areas of the state. Spanish/Mexican culture is the most visible in the region, due to the fact four of the five states were once Spanish/Mexican possessions. Cowboys can be found anywhere in the Pacific Southwest. Hawaii has its own version of the American cowboy, the paniolo. Asian culture is demonstrated in the region, especially in California and Hawaii. The area also has a sizeable black population, along with Arabic and Jewish culture.

Pacific Southwest Airlines

Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA) was a United States airline headquartered in San Diego, California, that operated from 1949 to 1988. It was the first large discount airline in the United States. PSA called itself "The World's Friendliest Airline" and painted a smile on the nose of its airplanes, the PSA Grinningbirds. Opinion L.A. of the Los Angeles Times called PSA "practically the unofficial flag carrier airline of California for almost 40 years." The airline initially operated as an intrastate air carrier wholly within California before expanding to other destinations in other states following the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.

PSA was one of the four airlines that formed US Airways, the others being America West Airlines, Piedmont Airlines and Allegheny Airlines. US Airways merged with American Airlines in 2013.

PSA's Boeing customer number was 14. Following the acquisition by and merger with USAir, the PSA name was given to Jetstream International Airlines by US Airways to preserve the PSA name and trademarks.

Southwest Airlines

Coordinates: 32°50′48″N 96°51′40″W / 32.8467°N 96.861°W / 32.8467; -96.861 (Southwest Airlines Headquarters)

Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE: LUV) is a major U.S. airline and the world's largest low-cost carrier, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The airline was established in 1967 by Herb Kelleher and adopted its current name (Southwest Airlines) in 1971. The airline has nearly 46,000 employees as of December 2014 and operates more than 3,800 flights per day. As of 2014, it carries the most domestic passengers of any U.S. airline. As of January 2016, Southwest Airlines has scheduled service to 97 destinations in 40 states, Puerto Rico, and abroad.

Southwest Airlines has used only Boeing 737s, except for several years in the 1970s and 1980s, when it leased some Boeing 727s from Braniff. As of January 2016, Southwest is the largest operator of the Boeing 737 worldwide, with over 700 in service, each averaging six flights per day.

History

Early history

Southwest Airlines began with the March 15, 1967, incorporation of Air Southwest Co. by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher to fly within the state of Texas.

Flight 182

Flight 182 may refer to:

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south and is bounded by Asia and Australia in the west and the Americas in the east.

At 165.25 million square kilometers (63.8 million square miles) in area, this largest division of the World Ocean—and, in turn, the hydrosphere—covers about 46% of the Earth's water surface and about one-third of its total surface area, making it larger than all of the Earth's land area combined.

The equator subdivides it into the North Pacific Ocean and South Pacific Ocean, with two exceptions: the Galápagos and Gilbert Islands, while straddling the equator, are deemed wholly within the South Pacific. The Mariana Trench in the western North Pacific is the deepest point in the world, reaching a depth of 10,911 metres (35,797 ft).

The eastern Pacific Ocean was first sighted by Europeans in the early 16th century when Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama in 1513 and discovered the great "southern sea" which he named Mar del Sur. The ocean's current name was coined by Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan during the Spanish circumnavigation of the world in 1521, as he encountered favourable winds on reaching the ocean. He called it Mar Pacifico, which in both Portuguese and Spanish means "peaceful sea".