Holiday travel
Christmas to New Year’s at SBA
Santa Barbara Municipal Airport, Santa Barbara, CA. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against SBA’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs December 23 through January 2, around Christmas Day (December 25). In the data: Dec 23, 2023 – Jan 2, 2024; Dec 23, 2024 – Jan 2, 2025; Dec 23, 2025 – Jan 2, 2026. Christmas Day fell on a Monday in 2023, Wednesday in 2024, and Thursday in 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Compared with ordinary days, Christmas to New Year’s flights were about the same in two and worse in one of the three years. The gap ran from 13.4 points below usual in 2025 to 1.6 points below usual in 2023.
3.22% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Christmas to New Year’s windows, against 1.25% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. It was lower in one of the three years and higher in one.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Dec 23, 2023 – Jan 2, 2024 | 194 | 82.5% | 84.1% | −1.6about the same | 0.00% | 1.60% |
| 2024Dec 23, 2024 – Jan 2, 2025 | 222 | 80.1% | 85.0% | −4.9about the same | 2.70% | 1.08% |
| 2025Dec 23, 2025 – Jan 2, 2026 | 237 | 71.2% | 84.6% | −13.4worse | 6.33% | 1.13% |
| All years3 windows | 653 | 77.7% | 84.6% | −6.9worse | 3.22% | 1.25% |
Day by day
No single day has enough flights to print a rate here, so there is no chart. The table below still lists every day, with dashes where the flights are too few.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 19Tue, Thu, Fri · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 20Wed, Fri, Sat · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 21Thu, Sat, Sun · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 22Fri, Sun, Mon · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 23Sat, Mon, Tue | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 24Sun, Tue, Wed | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Christmas Day (Dec 25)Mon, Wed, Thu | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 26Tue, Thu, Fri | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 27Wed, Fri, Sat | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 28Thu, Sat, Sun | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 29Fri, Sun, Mon | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 30Sat, Mon, Tue | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Dec 31Sun, Tue, Wed | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Jan 1Mon, Wed, Thu | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Jan 2Tue, Thu, Fri | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Jan 3Wed, Fri, Sat · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Jan 4Thu, Sat, Sun · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
| Jan 5Fri, Sun, Mon · outside the window | — | — | — | — | — | — · — · — |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at SBA were Saturday, Dec 23, 2023 (18 departures), Tuesday, Dec 26, 2023 (18 departures), Monday, Dec 23, 2024 (22 departures), Thursday, Dec 26, 2024 (22 departures), Tuesday, Dec 23, 2025 (24 departures), and Friday, Dec 26, 2025 (24 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 83.9%, still 3.5 points below usual for that time of day. Those leaving 12–3 PM had the lowest: 74.4%.
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 83.9% | 87.4% | −3.5about the same | — | — | — |
| 9 AM–12 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | 74.4% | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
SBA beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts SBA’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether SBA did better or worse than the network.
| Year | SBA on time | SBA, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Dec 23, 2023 – Jan 2, 2024 | 82.5% | −1.6 | 81.0% | +2.2 |
| 2024Dec 23, 2024 – Jan 2, 2025 | 80.1% | −4.9 | 76.2% | −3.4 |
| 2025Dec 23, 2025 – Jan 2, 2026 | 71.2% | −13.4 | 71.1% | −8.5 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at SBA, or the network view.