OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Seattle to Santa Barbara

908 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on SEA–SBA arrive on time 77% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate77%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay35 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.8%of scheduled flights

based on 274 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Not enough comparable data to name a most-on-time carrier — low-data carriers aren't ranked.

  • SkyWest Airlines
    On-time90%
    Medianon time
    p905 min
    Cancel1.6%
    Flights61
  • Alaska Airlines
    On-time73%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel1.9%
    Flights213

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline53%
  • Weather0%
  • Air traffic (NAS)11%
  • Late aircraft36%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline20%
  • Weather80%
  • Air traffic (NAS)0%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 5 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 SEA → SBA

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

Best time of day

Middays are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 84% on time.

  • Middays84% on time · p90 20 min · 353 flights
  • Afternoons79% on time · p90 30 min · 715 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 79% to 85% on time.

  • Tuesdays85% on time · p90 25 min · 168 flights · limited
  • Saturdays85% on time · p90 20 min · 151 flights · limited
  • Fridays82% on time · p90 20 min · 170 flights · limited
  • Wednesdays81% on time · p90 20 min · 166 flights · limited
  • Sundays80% on time · p90 25 min · 171 flights · limited
  • Thursdays79% on time · p90 35 min · 169 flights · limited
  • Mondays79% on time · p90 25 min · 170 flights · limited

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.