It’s a busy day at Santa Barbara Airport, and finding an empty seat near one of the boarding gates is a bit of a challenge. But, Mitzi Colton of Santa Barbara said she doesn’t mind it.
"I've flown several times out of here. I love this airport," said Colton.
She said it’s much easier for her to fly from Santa Barbara Airport to Salt Lake City than doing what she did in the old days, which was going to Los Angeles. "It's quick, it's so easy, and you don't have to be here three hours early."
For years, the airport struggled to get, and keep major airline service. In 2019, it almost hit a million passengers for the first time. Then the pandemic hit, and like many airports, it had a huge drop in business.
Now, it’s rebounded way past that point. It’s now considered to be a small hub airport. You can now fly from Santa Barbara to many destinations around the world with one stop, and that’s prompting many people to fly out of SBA instead of Burbank or Los Angeles.
It had a record 1.2 million passengers in 2023, and is on track to do even better this year. Last week, Delta started new service to the airport. For the first time in its history, it’s being served by all four of America’s largest airlines.
"The addition of Southwest really helped us in our passenger count, because it forces all of the carriers to be a bit more competitive," said Santa Barbara Airport Manager Chris Hastert.
He says as air service has improved in the last few years, it’s changed the mix of passengers. "With the pandemic, people were looking for recreational places to go. With pilot shortages, and other things, all of our flights upgraded to mainline, larger aircraft. When you have more frequency, and more places to go, it just help to elevate the air traffic travel into this area."
He said it's a good mix of about half the people coming for tourism and half for local businesses, as well as local residents traveling.
Five airlines now serve the airport: Delta, Alaska, American, Southwest, and United. Tourism officials say there are now enough flights, and connections it’s allowing the region to move past its core Southern California drive-by-car audience to more long distance fly-in visitors.
"We're finally able to compete with other popular leisure destinations," said Visit Santa Barbara President, and CEO Kathy Janega-Dykes. She said the beefed up air service has prompted the trade group to go after more group, and convention business.
"Our sales team was just in Atlanta, hosting an event for meeting and conference planners," said Janega-Dykes. She said they are even flying in event planners from around the country to see what's available in the region.
The airport has plans in the work to expand its 13 year old terminal, as well as other facilities to better meet the current and projected future demand. It includes adding additional boarding gates and more parking.
