Route profile
SBA→LAX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles, 89 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 88% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,144 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SBA → LAX arrives on time 89.9% of the time; the return trip, LAX → SBA, arrives on time 85.7% of the time, a 4.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SBA → LAX spends 30.8 minutes on the ground on an 89-mile trip: 19.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SBA and 11.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at LAX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 97% of 4,023 comparable routes.
92.1% on time for 12–3 PM departures, against 86.6% for 3–6 PM, a narrow gap either way.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SBA to LAX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SBA to LAX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 90.4% arrive on time, 17.4 points ahead of the 73.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 20.6 points.
SBA to LAX holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 90.7% on time to their 77.3%, a 13.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 13.5 points.
February is kinder to SBA to LAX than to routes of similar length: 96.1% on time against 76.3%, 19.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.7 points.
SkyWest Airlines does better on SBA to LAX than on its routes of similar length: 89.9% on time here, 79.5% there, 10.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8.7 points.
SBA to LAX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 90.4% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +17.4 pts | 178 here, 762 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 90.7% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | +13.4 pts | 311 here, 2,469 there |
| Month: February | 96.1% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +19.8 pts | 153 here, 1,172 there |
| Airline: SkyWest Airlines | 89.9% | routes of similar length | 79.5% | +10.4 pts | 2,116 here, 13,729 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 89 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
15 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 2,144 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LAX after arriving from SBA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 22% | High risk |
| 45 min | 9.7% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.6% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 1.21% of the time and diverts 0.09% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,116 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 15 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,144 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SBA → LAX flights departing 12–3 PM arrived on time 92.1% of the time, against 86.6% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.2% on time from 995 flights
- 7 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 91.6% on time from 252 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 84.5% on time from 333 flights
- 5 PM: 90.4% on time from 181 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SBA → LAX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SBA → LAX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,144 | 89.9% | 1.21% | -11 min | 4.7% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| OO4649 SkyWest Airlines | 6:00 AM | 669 | 92.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 3.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 94.1%
- Feb: 96.1%
- Mar: 90.6%
- Apr: 92.0%
- May: 94.4%
- Jun: 87.8%
- Jul: 88.3%
- Aug: 88.6%
- Sep: 91.6%
- Oct: 91.0%
- Nov: 85.1%
- Dec: 79.5%
December is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 16.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.9% against 92.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,144 SBA → LAX 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