Carrier route record
OOSFO→SBA
SkyWest Airlines · San Francisco to Santa Barbara
- Flights
- 578
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 36%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.
SkyWest on SFO to SBA lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 578 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate SkyWest on SFO to SBA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 559 completed flights
Avg delay
83 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.60%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
80.1%
Every carrier on SFO to SBA, 1,610 flights
These figures cover 578 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Carrier by carrier
SkyWest against every carrier on SFO to SBA
SkyWest flew 578 of the 1,610 flights on SFO to SBA, about 36% of it. Its 76.2% on time is 4 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 80.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 82.2% to SkyWest at 76.2%.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,032 | 82.2% | 57 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 578 | 76.2% | 83 min | 2.60% | B |
Departure window
When SkyWest runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am146 flights81.4%
- 11am–2pm5 flights—
- 2pm–5pm168 flights69.5%
- 5pm–8pm107 flights81.6%
- 8pm–5am152 flights75.5%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is the strongest at 81.6% on time. The full set of windows spans 12 points.
Across the year
SkyWest on SFO to SBA through the year
June is the worst month at 66.7% on time, 17 points below July, the best at 83.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. June was the busiest month here, with 90 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.0% on time and Monday the weakest at 61.7%. 28 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why SkyWest runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 50% of the 11,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 50%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 50%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 5,530 of the 11,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 11,048 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.60%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 262 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5pm–8pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 53.2% on time across 579 flights, 23 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 23 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 578 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking SkyWest on SFO to SBA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 578 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 76.2% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 559 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.