Rivals Not Rushing for USAir Routes in State : Airlines: Competitors are interested in taking over landing slots abandoned by the carrier, but they’d want them for flights to other states.

The nation’s airlines, reeling from high fuel prices and costly fare wars, aren’t likely to take over routes abandoned by USAir when it pulls out of six California airports in May.

Few airlines have the stomach for the sort of losses that Arlington Va.-based USAir piled up in a futile attempt to win a five-way competition to become California’s favorite airline. Airlines willing to take their chances don’t have enough aircraft on hand to start a new California route.

“There won’t be a huge stampede into USAir’s markets,” said Peter J. Otradovec, vice president-planning for America West Airlines.

Airline executives said in interviews that they might take over some USAir landing slots for flights to destinations outside the state. America West, for example, is looking at a USAir landing slot at Orange County’s John Wayne Airport for a flight to Las Vegas or Phoenix.

“We love California,” Otradovec said. “We just don’t have the aircraft to do point-to-point service in California.”

Delta Air Lines is also eyeing USAir’s landing slots at Orange County but won’t fly from there to another California city. “We have enough in the California corridor right now,” said Vince Durocher, Delta’s West Coast marketing manager. “If we got a slot at John Wayne, we would probably fly east.”

USAir’s May 2 pullout from Orange County, Burbank and four other airports won’t leave Californians grounded. Flights to out-of-state locations may increase. But it will be harder to get around California, since USAir is now the only airline to fly jets on certain routes--such as Oakland-Orange County.

In other cases, consumers will have no choice over which airline to fly. When USAir leaves Burbank, for example, the only way to get to San Jose will be on American. United will offer the only Burbank-San Francisco flights.

“You can still get to where you want to go,” said an executive at one airline with a large California presence. “But you might have to go out of your way to get there.”

Clearly, the airlines’ enthusiasm for the intra-California market has withered considerably. Only a few years ago, airlines rushed to stake claims to California’s travel market. USAir snapped up Pacific Southwest Airlines, American gobbled Air California, Delta took over Western Airlines and Alaska Airlines captured Jet America.

The intense competition that followed those mergers soon turned the rich California market--one of the nation’s largest--into the airline industry’s dust bowl. Hammered by overcapacity and price-cutting--with fares dipping as low as $20 one way--the airlines pulled up their stakes and unwound their mergers. One by one, Alaska, American and USAir all but gave up on the intra-California travel market. Only the merger of Delta with Western, a mostly east-west airline, is considered a success.

It is believed that USAir lost $10 million a year since its 1987 acquisition of San Diego-based Pacific Southwest Airlines. Its competitors also lost millions.

The financial picture is expected to improve once USAir cuts back most of its California flights, though profits are uncertain. One knowledgeable airline executive said the airlines might break even in California this year--if fuel costs ease.