Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) delays & on-time performance
Santa Barbara, California · 14 nonstop destinations · 7 airlines · Aug 2025 – Jul 2026
No FAA-reported ground stops or delays at SBA right now. Individual flights can still be delayed by the airline; check with your airline for your flight.
On-time arrivals
81%
arrived < 15 min late
Cancelled
1.0%
83 flights
Avg arrival delay
15 min
78 min when late
Departed on time
82%
avg taxi-out 17 min
Figures cover 8,582 departures from SBA; on-time is measured at arrival. Arrivals into SBA were on time 82% of the time.
Key facts
- Flights departing Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) arrived on time 81% of the time in Aug 2025 – Jul 2026, better than the 78% national average.
- 1% were cancelled, and 7% arrived an hour or more late.
- Envoy Air was the most punctual airline here (87% on time); United Airlines was the least (74%).
- Departures scheduled around 5am did best (95% on time); around 8am did worst (66%).
- The largest source of delay minutes was air traffic control & airport congestion (32%).
Most delayed routes from SBA
Lowest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- SFO · San Francisco63%1,640 flts
- DFW · Dallas/Fort Worth75%364 flts
- SEA · Seattle79%363 flts
- SMF · Sacramento83%365 flts
- DEN · Denver84%1,073 flts
- PHX · Phoenix85%1,431 flts
- LAS · Las Vegas87%885 flts
- LAX · Los Angeles89%687 flts
- SLC · Salt Lake City95%1,060 flts
Most reliable routes from SBA
Highest on-time arrival rates among regularly flown routes.
- SLC · Salt Lake City95%1,060 flts
- LAX · Los Angeles89%687 flts
- LAS · Las Vegas87%885 flts
- PHX · Phoenix85%1,431 flts
- DEN · Denver84%1,073 flts
- SMF · Sacramento83%365 flts
- SEA · Seattle79%363 flts
- DFW · Dallas/Fort Worth75%364 flts
- SFO · San Francisco63%1,640 flts
Best airline at SBA
Departures from this airport, ranked by on-time arrival.
| Airline | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Routes | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Air | 87% | 1.5% | 10 min | 2 | 403 |
| Southwest Airlines | 86% | 0.5% | 8 min | 5 | 1,838 |
| Delta Air Lines | 85% | 3.0% | 15 min | 2 | 328 |
| SkyWest Airlines | 82% | 1.1% | 14 min | 7 | 2,776 |
| American Airlines | 81% | 1.2% | 30 min | 2 | 977 |
| Alaska Airlines | 79% | 0.9% | 12 min | 1 | 344 |
| United Airlines | 74% | 0.6% | 19 min | 3 | 1,916 |
Best time to fly out of SBA
On-time arrival rate by scheduled departure hour (local time).
- 5am95%1,060 flts
- 6am92%1,226 flts
- 7am76%111 flts
- 8am66%251 flts
- 9am70%300 flts
- 10am80%461 flts
- 11am82%218 flts
- 12pm79%1,122 flts
- 1pm77%646 flts
- 2pm73%681 flts
- 3pm78%187 flts
- 4pm83%830 flts
- 5pm89%233 flts
- 6pm77%713 flts
- 7pm76%400 flts
- 8pm31%143 flts
Monthly trend
Why departures were late
- Air traffic control & airport congestion32%
- Late-arriving aircraft32%
- Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning, fueling)28%
- Extreme weather8%
- Security0%
Data: U.S. DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Aug 2025 – Jul 2026 (12 months). Latest month published by BTS: July 2026. How we calculate this.