OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Santa Barbara to Denver

916 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on SBA–DEN arrive on time 82% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate82%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay30 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.4%of scheduled flights

based on 857 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • United Airlines
    On-time82%
    Medianon time
    p9030 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights857

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline26%
  • Weather7%
  • Air traffic (NAS)46%
  • Late aircraft21%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Air traffic (NAS).

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline42%
  • Weather0%
  • Air traffic (NAS)58%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Air traffic (NAS). Shares are among 12 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly SBA → DEN

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 91% on time.

  • Mornings91% on time · p90 5 min · 1,509 flights
  • Middays78% on time · p90 40 min · 1,420 flights
  • Afternoons68% on time · p90 75 min · 388 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 78% to 87% on time.

  • Saturdays87% on time · p90 15 min · 444 flights
  • Wednesdays86% on time · p90 25 min · 464 flights
  • Tuesdays85% on time · p90 25 min · 459 flights
  • Thursdays82% on time · p90 30 min · 508 flights
  • Sundays81% on time · p90 40 min · 514 flights
  • Fridays80% on time · p90 40 min · 515 flights
  • Mondays78% on time · p90 35 min · 508 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.