Route profile
SFO→SBA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, 262 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 68% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,328 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SFO → SBA arrives on time 82.7% of the time; the return trip, SBA → SFO, arrives on time 69.2% of the time, a 13.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SFO → SBA spends 25.4 minutes on the ground on a 262-mile trip: 21.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SFO and 4.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at SBA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 96% of 2,692 comparable routes.
SkyWest Airlines (83.2% on time) and United Airlines (82.3%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SFO to SBA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SFO to SBA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 85.3% arrive on time, 16.9 points ahead of the 68.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.7 points.
SFO to SBA holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.5% on time to their 76.5%, a 8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
August is kinder to SFO to SBA than to routes of similar length: 88.1% on time against 77.8%, 10.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
SkyWest Airlines does better on SFO to SBA than on its routes of similar length: 83.2% on time here, 76.5% there, 6.7 points apart.
SFO to SBA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 68.4% | +16.9 pts | 313 here, 44,080 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 84.5% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +8.0 pts | 626 here, 107,790 there |
| Month: August | 88.1% | routes of similar length | 77.8% | +10.3 pts | 344 here, 61,343 there |
| Airline: SkyWest Airlines | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +6.7 pts | 1,877 here, 63,344 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 262 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.
Why SFO → SBA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SFO → SBA cancelled 54 of 4,328 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 80. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 40.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 197 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 54 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
22 cancellations, 40.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
19 cancellations, 35.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
13 cancellations, 24.1% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
54 coded cancellations were recorded on SFO → SBA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
35 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 4,328 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SBA after arriving from SFO.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | 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 1.25% of the time and diverts 0.55% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,250 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 35 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,328 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SFO → SBA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.7% of the time, against 74.6% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 12.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 86.7% on time from 480 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 85.8% on time from 1,127 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 75.9% on time from 164 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 79.2% on time from 941 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 85.3% on time from 318 flights
- 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 83.2% on time from 132 flights
- 9 PM: 78.9% on time from 267 flights
- 10 PM: 82.0% on time from 825 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SFO → 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 SFO → SBA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on SFO → SBA, at 40.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 86.7% of the time and 12–3 PM departures 74.6%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,412 | 82.3% | 1.12% | -8 min | 6.0% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,916 | 83.2% | 1.41% | -9 min | 5.4% |
United Airlines flew 55.7% of the 4,328 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 10.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.3%
- Feb: 78.5%
- Mar: 82.0%
- Apr: 83.9%
- May: 81.7%
- Jun: 79.6%
- Jul: 79.7%
- Aug: 88.1%
- Sep: 87.8%
- Oct: 85.1%
- Nov: 83.0%
- Dec: 80.2%
February is historically the weakest month and August the strongest, a spread of 9.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (114)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2023: 87.8% from 123 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (116)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (89)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (82)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (84)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (60)
- July 2024: 86.9% from 123 flights
- August 2024: 93.3% from 122 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2024: 83.8% from 120 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (80)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- April 2025: 88.9% from 144 flights
- May 2025: 87.6% from 154 flights
- June 2025: 84.0% from 120 flights
- July 2025: 78.6% from 123 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- September 2025: 86.2% from 132 flights
- October 2025: 83.9% from 143 flights
- November 2025: 81.9% from 146 flights
- December 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- January 2026: 80.5% from 122 flights
- February 2026: 80.2% from 127 flights
- March 2026: 84.6% from 149 flights
- April 2026: 75.9% from 140 flights
- May 2026: 74.7% from 150 flights
- June 2026: 70.0% from 150 flights
- July 2026: 71.7% from 152 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.4% against 84.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,328 SFO → 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