in 1985 pacific southwest airlines (psa) initiated bellingham's first passenger jet service with mcdonnell douglas md-80s direct to los angeles, san diego and san francisco with all psa flights including a stop at seattle/tacoma. psa was acquired by usair which continued to serve bellingham with boeing 737-300s. alaska airlines introduced md-80 jets in the late 1980s, competing with usair with both airlines operating nonstop jet service to seattle/tacoma and direct one stop service to other destinations. usair then changed its name to us airways and eventually merged with american airlines in 2015; however, by the early 1990s, usair had ceased serving bellingham. during the late 1980s, alaska airlines was joined by horizon air, a wholly owned subsidiary of the alaska air group, with this regional airline flying nonstop service with turboprops to seattle/tacoma. aircraft operated by horizon air into the airport over the years included such propjets as the fairchild swearingen metroliner, the de havilland canada dhc-8 dash 8 and the dornier 328. horizon air, which currently operates flights for alaska airlines, continues to serve bellingham at the present time with nonstop service to seattle/tacoma flown with the bombardier q400 turboprop which is the largest and fastest member of the dash 8 regional airliner family. commencing in the late 1980s, united express was serving the airport with nonstop flights to seattle/tacoma on behalf of united airlines via code sharing agreements with the respective operating air carriers. north pacific airlines operated the first united express flights into bellingham with british aerospace bae jetstream 31 propjets and were followed by skywest airlines flying as united express with embraer emb-120 brasilia turboprops. united express no longer serves bellingham.