Santa Barbara Municipal in December 2025

77.3%departed on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report.

In December 2025, reporting carriers scheduled 683 domestic departures from Santa Barbara Municipal (SBA). 77.3% left less than 15 minutes late and 77.2% reached their destination on time; 2.5% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 72.0% of flights departed on time and 71.9% arrived on time, so SBA departures were 5.3 points above the national departure figure.

A year earlier, in December 2024, the airport had 630 departures with 83.3% leaving on time: a change of −6.0 points, with flights up 8%.

Flights arriving at SBA that month were on time 77.6% of the time (682 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 41%, national aviation system 28% and extreme weather 17%.

On time 77.2%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 20.4%
Cancelled 2.5%
Diverted 0.0%

Every scheduled departure from SBA in December 2025, judged by arrival at the destination.

December 2025 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	Dec 2025	Dec 2024	SBA, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Dec 2025
Departed on time	77.3%	83.3%	81.1%	72.0%
Arrived on time	77.2%	83.5%	80.3%	71.9%
Cancelled	2.5%	1.0%	1.0%	1.5%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	23.9 min	14.3 min	15.0 min	21.2 min
Scheduled departures a day	23	21	24	19,410
Scheduled departures	683	630	8,582	582,304

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
OO SkyWest Airlines	181	27%	76.2%	15.9 min	3.3%
WN Southwest Airlines	152	22%	80.9%	-0.3 min	3.3%
UA United Airlines	136	20%	77.2%	20.6 min	1.5%
AA American Airlines	84	12%	61.9%	42.4 min	0.0%
DL Delta Air Lines	59	9%	79.7%	8.4 min	5.1%
MQ Envoy Air	41	6%	92.7%	-0.1 min	0.0%
AS Alaska Airlines	30	4%	80.0%	6.1 min	3.3%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SBA–PHX	Santa Barbara to Phoenix	124	82.3%	14.4 min	0.8%
SBA–SFO	Santa Barbara to San Francisco	118	68.6%	37.1 min	1.7%
SBA–SLC	Santa Barbara to Salt Lake City	90	86.7%	-0.5 min	4.4%
SBA–DEN	Santa Barbara to Denver	77	77.9%	3.6 min	2.6%
SBA–LAS	Santa Barbara to Las Vegas	75	82.7%	-0.4 min	2.7%
SBA–LAX	Santa Barbara to Los Angeles	46	65.2%	28.1 min	4.3%
SBA–DFW	Santa Barbara to Dallas/Fort Worth	31	45.2%	62.7 min	0.0%
SBA–OAK	Santa Barbara to Oakland	31	96.8%	-9.5 min	0.0%
SBA–SMF	Santa Barbara to Sacramento	31	71.0%	4.6 min	6.5%
SBA–ATL	Santa Barbara to Atlanta	30	80.0%	8.2 min	3.3%
SBA–SEA	Santa Barbara to Seattle	30	80.0%	6.1 min	3.3%

By scheduled departure hour

100

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over

Share of departures that left less than 15 minutes late, by scheduled hour (local time), December 2025.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Dec 2025	Minutes
Air carrier	14.4%	33.3%	2,187
Late-arriving aircraft	41.0%	41.1%	6,235
National Aviation System	27.7%	19.1%	4,214
Extreme weather	16.9%	6.4%	2,577
Security	0.0%	0.2%	0

15,213 delay minutes on 139 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Questions and answers

How many flights left SBA on time in December 2025?

77.3% of 683 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 77.2% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 72.0% and 71.9%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

In December 2024, 83.3% of 630 departures left on time and 1.0% were cancelled, against 77.3% and 2.5% in December 2025.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for December 2025; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights by reporting carriers, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for SBA · methodology · corrections.