Santa Barbara Municipal in May 2026

80.8%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 May 2026, reporting carriers scheduled 816 domestic departures from Santa Barbara Municipal (SBA). 80.8% left less than 15 minutes late and 78.6% reached their destination on time; 0.5% were cancelled.

Nationally that month, 77.1% of flights departed on time and 77.6% arrived on time, so SBA departures were 3.7 points above the national departure figure.

A year earlier, in May 2025, the airport had 748 departures with 82.0% leaving on time: a change of −1.2 points, with flights up 9%.

Flights arriving at SBA that month were on time 80.9% of the time (815 scheduled arrivals).

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, national aviation system 53%, late-arriving aircraft 26% and air carrier 20%.

On time 78.6%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 20.8%
Cancelled 0.5%
Diverted 0.1%

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

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

Measure	May 2026	May 2025	SBA, 12 months to Jul 2026	All reported flights, May 2026
Departed on time	80.8%	82.0%	81.1%	77.1%
Arrived on time	78.6%	79.3%	80.3%	77.6%
Cancelled	0.5%	0.7%	1.0%	0.9%
Average departure delay (late minutes only)	11.4 min	9.8 min	15.0 min	16.0 min
Scheduled departures a day	27	25	24	20,391
Scheduled departures	816	748	8,582	611,735

Airlines that month

Reporting carrier	Flights	Share	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
OO SkyWest Airlines	361	44%	78.4%	4.1 min	0.8%
UA United Airlines	171	21%	63.2%	18.1 min	0.0%
WN Southwest Airlines	167	20%	89.2%	-4.6 min	0.0%
AA American Airlines	79	10%	86.1%	-4.8 min	1.3%
AS Alaska Airlines	23	3%	82.6%	4.3 min	0.0%
MQ Envoy Air	15	2%	93.3%	-5.6 min	0.0%

Busiest routes that month

Route	Cities	Flights	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
SBA–SFO	Santa Barbara to San Francisco	151	45.0%	31.7 min	1.3%
SBA–PHX	Santa Barbara to Phoenix	116	91.4%	-2.0 min	0.0%
SBA–SLC	Santa Barbara to Salt Lake City	93	94.6%	-10.8 min	0.0%
SBA–DEN	Santa Barbara to Denver	88	87.5%	-0.1 min	0.0%
SBA–LAS	Santa Barbara to Las Vegas	79	87.3%	-1.9 min	0.0%
SBA–SAN	Santa Barbara to San Diego	62	69.4%	13.1 min	1.6%
SBA–LAX	Santa Barbara to Los Angeles	61	93.4%	-7.2 min	0.0%
SBA–DFW	Santa Barbara to Dallas/Fort Worth	31	77.4%	-6.0 min	3.2%
SBA–OAK	Santa Barbara to Oakland	31	87.1%	-6.9 min	0.0%
SBA–ORD	Santa Barbara to Chicago	31	58.1%	16.0 min	0.0%
SBA–SMF	Santa Barbara to Sacramento	31	90.3%	-9.3 min	0.0%
SBA–SEA	Santa Barbara to Seattle	23	82.6%	4.3 min	0.0%

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), May 2026.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	National, May 2026	Minutes
Air carrier	19.7%	33.0%	1,859
Late-arriving aircraft	25.7%	40.4%	2,418
National Aviation System	53.0%	20.5%	4,991
Extreme weather	1.6%	6.0%	150
Security	0.0%	0.1%	0

9,418 delay minutes on 170 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 May 2026?

80.8% of 816 scheduled domestic departures left less than 15 minutes late, and 78.6% reached their destination on time. The national figures that month were 77.1% and 77.6%.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

In May 2025, 82.0% of 748 departures left on time and 0.7% were cancelled, against 80.8% and 0.5% in May 2026.

Provenance

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