SBA to ORD flight delays
Santa Barbara, CA (SBA) Chicago, IL (ORD) · 1,803 miles
86 flights · July 2024 – July 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
47.06% of flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago arrived within 15 minutes of schedule over July 2024 – July 2026, across 86 flights.
47.06%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
0%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
66 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
37 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago arrive late more often than they arrive on time. At this rate lateness is the normal outcome, not the exception, and the schedule is better read as an aspiration than a plan.
The two directions do not behave alike. ORD to SBA arrives on time 19.2 points more often than the outbound. Delay accumulates through the flying day, so whichever direction is scheduled later tends to carry the worse record — which is an argument for booking the morning departure if the choice exists.
This route does worse than its own airport. SBA as a whole runs 36.1 points more punctual than these flights, which points at something specific to the route — the time of day it is scheduled, or the aircraft that feed it — rather than the airport.
Every airline on SBA to ORD
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 86 | 47.06% | 0% | 66 min | — |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
ORD to SBA Chicago back to Santa Barbara 66.28% on time —Other routes from Santa Barbara
Common questions
Are flights from Santa Barbara to Chicago usually delayed?
47.06% of flights on the SBA to ORD route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 5 in every ten arrived late. That is worse than the average route in this record.
How often are SBA to ORD flights cancelled?
0% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 1 in every thousand. That is in the normal range.
When SBA to ORD flights are late, how late are they?
About 66 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on SBA to ORD during July 2024 – July 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →