Route profile
OAK→SBA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Oakland to Santa Barbara, 263 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 99% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,058 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
OAK → SBA arrives on time 88.8% of the time; the return trip, SBA → OAK, arrives on time 85.6% of the time, a 3.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
OAK → SBA spends 15.6 minutes on the ground on a 263-mile trip: 11.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at OAK and 3.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at SBA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 96% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 10 min early, and the worst tenth are only 27 minutes worse than that.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where OAK to SBA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
OAK to SBA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 93.2% arrive on time, 7.8 points ahead of the 85.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
OAK to SBA holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 92.4% on time to their 75.3%, a 17.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 16.2 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on OAK to SBA than on its routes of similar length: 88.8% on time here, 79.0% there, 9.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
OAK to SBA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 93.2% | routes of similar length | 85.4% | +7.8 pts | 337 here, 38,522 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 92.4% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +17.1 pts | 157 here, 108,536 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 88.8% | routes of similar length | 79.0% | +9.8 pts | 1,047 here, 239,392 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 263 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
17 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 1,058 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SBA after arriving from OAK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 21% | High risk |
| 45 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 5.7% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 2.0% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.1% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 0.57% of the time and diverts 0.47% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,047 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 17 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,058 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
OAK → SBA flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 92.9% of the time, against 84.7% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 88.4% on time from 280 flights
- 9 AM: 93.2% on time from 343 flights
- 10 AM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why OAK → SBA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for OAK → SBA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on OAK → SBA, at 45.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 92.9% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 84.7%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,058 | 88.8% | 0.57% | -10 min | 2.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 9.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.3% against 91.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,058 OAK → SBA flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed