Santa Barbara Municipal in March 2026

86.2%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 March 2026, reporting carriers scheduled 734 domestic departures from Santa Barbara Municipal (SBA). 86.2% left less than 15 minutes late and 84.5% reached their destination on time; 0.3% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 72.8% of flights departed on time and 73.2% arrived on time, so SBA departures were 13.4 points above the national departure figure.

A year earlier, in March 2025, the airport had 652 departures with 85.3% leaving on time: a change of +0.9 points, with flights up 13%.

Flights arriving at SBA that month were on time 85.7% of the time (735 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 53%, air carrier 22% and national aviation system 16%.

On time 84.5%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 15.1%
Cancelled 0.3%
Diverted 0.1%

Every scheduled departure from SBA in March 2026, judged by arrival at the destination.

March 2026 against a year earlier, the airport's year and the nation

Measure	Mar 2026	Mar 2025	SBA, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, Mar 2026
Departed on time	86.2%	85.3%	81.1%	72.8%
Arrived on time	84.5%	81.7%	80.3%	73.2%
Cancelled	0.3%	0.2%	1.0%	2.9%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	12.6 min	14.3 min	15.0 min	20.3 min
Scheduled departures a day	25	22	24	20,403
Scheduled departures	734	652	8,582	612,102

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
OO SkyWest Airlines	239	33%	87.0%	-1.1 min	0.0%
WN Southwest Airlines	169	23%	88.2%	-2.1 min	0.0%
UA United Airlines	149	20%	79.2%	13.3 min	0.0%
AA American Airlines	122	17%	81.1%	11.2 min	0.8%
AS Alaska Airlines	31	4%	77.4%	0.0 min	3.2%
MQ Envoy Air	24	3%	91.7%	-7.0 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SBA–SFO	Santa Barbara to San Francisco	149	77.2%	12.4 min	0.0%
SBA–PHX	Santa Barbara to Phoenix	146	82.2%	10.3 min	0.7%
SBA–SLC	Santa Barbara to Salt Lake City	92	95.7%	-9.6 min	0.0%
SBA–DEN	Santa Barbara to Denver	89	85.4%	5.3 min	0.0%
SBA–LAS	Santa Barbara to Las Vegas	83	83.1%	2.5 min	0.0%
SBA–LAX	Santa Barbara to Los Angeles	54	92.6%	-4.6 min	0.0%
SBA–DFW	Santa Barbara to Dallas/Fort Worth	31	74.2%	5.5 min	0.0%
SBA–SEA	Santa Barbara to Seattle	31	77.4%	0.0 min	3.2%
SBA–SMF	Santa Barbara to Sacramento	30	93.3%	-5.9 min	0.0%
SBA–OAK	Santa Barbara to Oakland	29	93.1%	-11.1 min	0.0%

By scheduled departure hour

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

Share of departures that left less than 15 minutes late, by scheduled hour (local time), March 2026.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, Mar 2026	Minutes
Air carrier	21.7%	33.5%	1,906
Late-arriving aircraft	53.1%	39.3%	4,660
National Aviation System	15.6%	21.0%	1,365
Extreme weather	9.6%	5.9%	843
Security	0.0%	0.2%	0

8,774 delay minutes on 111 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 March 2026?

86.2% of 734 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 84.5% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 72.8% and 73.2%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

In March 2025, 85.3% of 652 departures left on time and 0.2% were cancelled, against 86.2% and 0.3% in March 2026.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for March 2026; 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.