SBA Airport: 82.2% on time, worst at 8 PM

SBA right now

Live conditions where a permitted source publishes them, and the historical record where none does.

No disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Aviation weatherVFR

62°F · wind 3 kt

Minimal operational impact. Conditions are not a notable factor for operations right now.

Updated 07:53 UTC

Forecast issued 05:36Z.

Updated 05:36 UTC

Aircraft seen now

On the field0

Airborne within 15 NM0

Departed in the last hour0

Arrived in the last hour0

Below 10,000 ft, so aircraft overflying at cruise are not counted. These are observations, not an operational status: a count is a floor, since receiver coverage varies and a movement between two samples can be missed.

Updated 08:41 UTC

Aircraft observations from ADSB.lol (opens in a new tab) (Katia Esposito and contributing feeders), under the ODbL 1.0 (opens in a new tab). Derived data.

Parking

Economy Parking303 free / 564

Long-term Parking108 free / 780

Short-term Parking23 free / 192

Updated 08:39 UTC

FlyerIntel shows live values only where a permitted source provides them. Sections without data are left empty rather than estimated.

Airport reliability

Departures from SBA, July 2023 – July 2026.

Airport Reliability Score

71/ 100Good

Better than 73% of major US airports covered by FlyerIntel (64 compared)

Calculated from 24,550 flights. How this is calculated

Departures arriving on time

82.2%

19,937 of 24,241 completed

Cancellation rate

1.08%

265 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-8 min

Average 5.4 min

Severe delays

6.5%

Arrived 60+ minutes late

Delay when late

79 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Departures analyzed

24,550

24,554 arrivals

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

How this airport compares to others like it, not just to itself.

This airport holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 99% of 306 comparable airports.

85.7% on time in its best month (January) against 78.8% in its worst (June).

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other airport with the same kind of figure and at least 306 in the comparison.

Why flights run late at SBA

Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on departures from SBA.

Late-arriving aircraft38.5%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline28.0%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control26.5%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather6.9%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.2%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for departures from SBA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Of the 3,836 departures from SBA that left 15 or more minutes late and have a known inbound aircraft, 59% followed a flight that landed 15 or more minutes late. The other 41% left late even though the aircraft had come in on time or early. Across the 64 covered airports that share runs from 47% to 73%, with a median of 62%; SBA’s is the 30th lowest.

The late flight is the one the same aircraft flew into SBA just before, found from the tail number in the DOT file. Airlines and hours differ from one airport to the next, so this describes the departures from SBA and does not rate the airport.

An airport is only partly the author of its own delays. Late-arriving aircraft describes the national schedule arriving here more than anything about this airfield. Air traffic control covers airspace and airport capacity, which is where a congested airport shows up; only the airline category sits squarely inside the carriers’ own operation. How differently they run it is further down this page.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What weather costs at SBA

Departures from SBA by the weather at the airport in the hour they were scheduled to leave, July 2023 – July 2026.

16.2% of scheduled departures from SBA left in an hour of bad weather. 2.5% of them were cancelled, against 0.5% in normal conditions, and 81.5% of the ones that flew arrived on time, against 82.6%. That is about 80 more cancellations than the normal-conditions rate would give.

Cancellations were highest in LIFR hours: 3.6% of 1,620 departures, 7.1 times the normal rate.

By weather

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Cancellation and on-time rates at SBA by the weather at the airport in the scheduled departure hour
Weather at the airport	Departures	Cancelled	Left on time	Arrived on time	Avg. departure delay
Normal conditionsVFR with no thunderstorm, snow or ice, fog, heavy rain or high wind	18,13074.1% of all	0.5%	83.0%	82.6%	8.0 min
Any bad weatherIFR or LIFR, or a thunderstorm, snow or ice, fog, heavy rain or high wind	3,95416.2% of all	2.5%5.0 times normal	82.9%	81.5%1.1 points below normal	17.7 min
MVFRceiling 1,000 to 3,000 feet or visibility 3 to 5 miles	2,3809.7% of all	2.2%4.4 times normal	80.9%	80.7%1.9 points below normal	12.0 min
IFRceiling 500 to 999 feet or visibility 1 to under 3 miles	2,2659.3% of all	1.8%3.6 times normal	84.4%	82.3%	12.7 min
LIFRceiling under 500 feet or visibility under 1 mile	1,6206.6% of all	3.6%7.1 times normal	81.4%	81.0%1.6 points below normal	25.0 min
Fogfog or freezing fog reported at the airport	4651.9% of all	5.4%10.6 times normal	79.3%	76.9%5.7 points below normal	36.4 min
Low ceilinga broken or overcast layer under 1,000 feet	3,77615.4% of all	2.4%4.7 times normal	83.3%	81.9%	16.8 min
Low visibilityvisibility under 3 miles	1,2875.3% of all	5.1%10.1 times normal	79.6%	78.9%3.7 points below normal	29.6 min

A departure is counted in every row its hour fits, so the rows overlap and do not add up. Left on time is a departure under 15 minutes late, and arrived on time an arrival under 15 minutes late; cancelled is the share of scheduled departures. Rows with fewer than 120 departures are not scored. Too few departures to score: heavy rain (56), high wind (77).

This is the weather reported at SBA in the hour a flight was scheduled to leave. It leaves out the weather at the destination and on the way, weather that arrived after the scheduled time, and anything else that goes wrong in a bad hour. An hour takes the worst conditions any report in it gave. Weather was matched to 99.7% of the airport’s scheduled departures; the rest left in hours with no report, or at a scheduled time the flight records cannot place exactly. Bad-weather hours are compared with normal hours at the same airport, not with what the same flights would have done in a clear sky: they also fall more often in some seasons and at some times of day.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS flight records and Iowa Environmental Mesonet weather reports · July 2023 – July 2026 · Where the weather comes from, and its limits. All covered airports side by side: What Weather Costs Each Airport.

Turning aircraft around at SBA

Time on the ground between one flight and the next of the same aircraft at SBA, and what a late arrival does to the next departure, July 2023 – July 2026.

The median turn at SBA is scheduled for 45 minutes on the ground and takes 50 minutes, against 56 minutes and 63 minutes across all airports. Aircraft are given less time on the ground here than at the typical airport. The typical turn runs 5 minutes over its schedule, closer to it than the 7 minutes across all airports. 16.2% of turns here began with an aircraft that landed 15 or more minutes late, below the 18.9% for all airports.

When the aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late (2,628 turns here, 51 minutes late on average), 70% of the turns were finished in no more than the scheduled ground time, against 68% across all airports. 78% of those flights left 15 or more minutes late, against 72%. After an aircraft that landed on time, 9% did (all airports 11%).

Given the turn lengths scheduled here, the network’s rates would give 58% finished in the schedule and 83% leaving late. SBA does better on both counts: more late turns are finished in the schedule and fewer late aircraft become late departures, so the turn recovers lateness here beyond what the schedule explains. 43% of its late-inbound turns had a scheduled turn of 30 to 44 minutes, against 20% across all airports.

Turns at SBA against all airports

16,220 turns, July 2023 – July 2026

Aircraft turns at SBA against all airports: scheduled and actual time on the ground and what a late inbound aircraft does
Measure	SBA	All airports	All airports, same turn lengths
Median scheduled turn	45 min	56 min	—
Median actual turn	50 min	63 min	—
Turns that began with an aircraft 15+ minutes late	16%	19%	—
Late turns finished within the schedule	70%	68%	58%
Late inbound that left 15+ minutes late	78%	72%	83%
On-time inbound that left 15+ minutes late	9%	11%	—

The last column is the network’s rate at the turn lengths scheduled at SBA, band by band from under 30 minutes to 3 to 6 hours. A turn finishes within the schedule when the aircraft spent no more time on the ground than the schedule gave it.

A turn pairs an aircraft’s landing at SBA with its next departure from it by tail number; the aircraft is never named. These 16,220 turns are 66% of the flights that left SBA in the period; the rest are an aircraft’s first flight after a long stay, flights without a usable inbound, and cancelled flights. Ground time runs from the gate. Turns under 30 minutes are kept, but most leave late even after an on-time landing. Airlines set their own turn schedules, so this describes the airlines that fly at SBA and does not rate the airport.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS flight records · July 2023 – July 2026 · Airports side by side: Where a Late Aircraft Gets Its Time Back.

What sets SBA apart

Where SBA’s hours, months, airlines and taxi time differ most from the other airports, July 2023 – July 2026.

Flights scheduled to leave SBA at 5 PM arrive on time 85.9% of the time, 15.5 points better than the 70.4% for that hour at the other airports.

8 AM is where SBA falls furthest behind the rest: 63.4% of its 8 AM departures arrive on time, 22.6 points below the 86.0% for that hour elsewhere.

July treats SBA better than it treats the rest of the country: 80.0% on time against 70.1% elsewhere, 9.9 points ahead.

Envoy Air does better out of SBA than anywhere else it flies: 88.3% on time here, 80.1% on its other departures, 8.2 points apart.

United Airlines’ departures from SBA arrive on time 77.0% of the time, 2.8 points worse than the 79.8% the same airline manages at its other airports.

Taxi-out at SBA averages 15.7 minutes, 3.0 minutes less than the 18.7 minutes elsewhere.

SBA against the other airports

July 2023 – July 2026

Where SBA differs most from the other covered airports, with the flights behind each figure
Measure	SBA	Elsewhere	Gap	Flights behind it
Hour: 5 PM departures	85.9%	70.4%	+15.5 pts	736 here, 1,068,831 elsewhere
Hour: 8 AM departures	63.4%	86.0%	−22.6 pts	615 here, 1,282,977 elsewhere
Month: July	80.0%	70.1%	+9.9 pts	2,816 here, 1,983,667 elsewhere
Airline: Envoy Air	88.3%	80.1%	+8.2 pts	974 here, 867,730 elsewhere
Airline: United Airlines	77.0%	79.8%	−2.8 pts	4,839 here, 2,377,731 elsewhere
Taxi-out: Departures	15.7 min	18.7 min	−3.0 min	24,291 here, 17,605,818 elsewhere

"Elsewhere" is every other covered airport together, taken from the same aggregates as this page with SBA’s own flights removed (for airlines, that airline’s flights from all its other airports). Hours, months and airlines appear only where both sides have at least 120 completed flights (airlines 500) and the gap is at least 2 points and 2 standard errors; only the largest gap in each direction is shown. The taxi figure is weighted by departures and has no error estimate, so it appears from 2 minutes.

Best time to fly from SBA

On-time arrival rate by scheduled local departure time: each weekday and hour, and averaged over the week.

Flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.4% of the time, against 73.1% for 6–9 PM departures — a gap of 16.3 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time.

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 7.8 points from the airport-wide rate, weekday averages 1.9 points.

On-time arrival rate at SBA by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 5 AM and after 8 PM (306 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday at SBA. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	92.4% on time388 flights	92.1% on time368 flights	94.1% on time361 flights	95.6% on time392 flights	93.5% on time390 flights	93.2% on time413 flights	92.6% on time403 flights
6 AM–7 AM	92.1% on time545 flights	91.3% on time557 flights	92.4% on time559 flights	92.3% on time549 flights	92.4% on time549 flights	90.4% on time524 flights	90.3% on time535 flights
7 AM–8 AM	88.2% on time132 flights	77.3% on time128 flights	82.4% on time129 flights	93.4% on time125 flights	88.2% on time128 flights	83.3% on time122 flights	106 flights, too few to score
8 AM–9 AM	97 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	88 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	108 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	111 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score	93 flights, too few to score
10 AM–11 AM	77.9% on time198 flights	86.6% on time187 flights	82.4% on time178 flights	84.6% on time190 flights	78.9% on time196 flights	87.7% on time182 flights	81.8% on time193 flights
11 AM–12 PM	87.7% on time138 flights	113 flights, too few to score	88.4% on time123 flights	82.3% on time142 flights	85.9% on time137 flights	87 flights, too few to score	117 flights, too few to score
12 PM–1 PM	74.7% on time365 flights	81.1% on time318 flights	77.8% on time321 flights	74.8% on time361 flights	74.1% on time371 flights	80.4% on time321 flights	75.9% on time337 flights
1 PM–2 PM	74.0% on time377 flights	81.2% on time342 flights	85.4% on time344 flights	80.4% on time377 flights	76.9% on time377 flights	81.8% on time346 flights	79.7% on time375 flights
2 PM–3 PM	74.4% on time236 flights	82.1% on time276 flights	78.3% on time278 flights	69.4% on time223 flights	71.4% on time228 flights	72.6% on time224 flights	70.4% on time248 flights
3 PM–4 PM	97 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	85 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	98 flights, too few to score	54 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	82.6% on time399 flights	87.9% on time343 flights	86.2% on time352 flights	79.4% on time401 flights	75.8% on time401 flights	85.4% on time324 flights	77.5% on time397 flights
5 PM–6 PM	86.2% on time125 flights	92 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	119 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	72.3% on time268 flights	83.4% on time228 flights	80.1% on time224 flights	74.1% on time277 flights	76.4% on time260 flights	84.3% on time177 flights	74.5% on time263 flights
7 PM–8 PM	71.7% on time155 flights	76.5% on time121 flights	69.3% on time128 flights	69.0% on time160 flights	68.4% on time173 flights	100 flights, too few to score	64.4% on time181 flights

By departure window

All days combined

5–9 AM89.4%

9 AM–12 PM83.8%

12–3 PM77.3%

3–6 PM81.9%

6–9 PM73.1%

9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

All days combined

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Buckets with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

What to expect at SBA

How busy the airport is through the day, from scheduled departure volume.

Departures a day

22

Average across the analysis period

Busiest hour

6 AM

About 3 departures

Typical taxi-out

15.7 min

Pushback to wheels-up, on departure

Typical taxi-in

4.8 min

Touchdown to gate, on arrival

Scheduled departures by hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

The busiest hour is 6 AM, with about 3 departures a day, against roughly 0 at 9 PM. That peak is also more punctual than a typical hour here: early banks fly aircraft that spent the night on the ground rather than ones inheriting the day’s delays.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Taxi-out runs from gate to wheels-up, averaged over departures and weighted by hour. Taxi-in runs from touchdown to gate.

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon80.6%

Tue84.9%

Wed83.7%

Thu81.7%

Fri80.3%

Sat84.7%

Sun80.4%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.6 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 6.9 percentage points.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

Airlines at SBA

Departure performance by operating carrier. Regional flights are reported by the carrier that operated them, not by the mainline brand.

Airlines at SBA
Carrier	Departures	On time	Cancelled	Median delay
SkyWest Airlines OO	7,273	83.1%	1.09%	-9 min
Southwest Airlines WN	5,875	85.8%	0.78%	-9 min
United Airlines UA	4,914	77.0%	1.36%	-7 min
American Airlines AA	3,024	79.0%	1.16%	-7 min
Delta Air Lines DL	1,414	86.6%	1.27%	-11 min
Alaska Airlines AS	1,064	79.1%	0.94%	-5 min
Envoy Air MQ	986	88.3%	1.01%	-9 min

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Carriers with fewer than 500 departures are not listed.

Reliability over time

On-time arrival rate for departures, by month.

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), departures from SBA arrived on time 81.3% of the time, against 83.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.0 percentage points.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

Data and sources

Historical statistics

Every historical figure on this page is calculated by FlyerIntel from US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics on-time performance records covering July 2023 – July 2026, comprising 24,550 departures from SBA. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule.

Full methodology · All data sources

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

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Santa Barbara Municipal Airport on-time performance, from FlyerIntel

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Live conditions

Aviation weather comes from the NOAA Aviation Weather Center. Operational events come from the FAA where available. FlyerIntel shows the age of every live value and does not display data it cannot currently retrieve.

See something wrong? Report it

Latest observation for SBA: METAR KSBA 180753Z AUTO 34003KT 10SM CLR 17/08 A2997 RMK AO2 SLP150 T01670078 403280144 (issued 07:53 UTC).