AnonymousBy the City of Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) invites the community to join an interactive Open House on the SBA Master Plan Update. The objective of the SBA Master Plan Update is to provide the community and public officials with proper guidance for future development, which will satisfy aviation demands and be wholly compatible with the environment. This project will update the 2017 SBA Master Plan and will focus on:
- Preparing for coming air service trends
- Promoting financial resiliency
- Addressing environmental challenges
- Involving stakeholders in the process
The Open House will provide community members an opportunity to discuss the Master Plan Update process and provide input. Airport staff and members of the consultant team will be available to take comments, answer questions, and discuss points of interest. The SBA team looks forward to meeting with the community and hearing ideas.
To learn more, view the current SBA Master Plan documents, and sign up for future notifications on the topic, please visit FlySBA.com/MPU.
ABOUT SANTA BARBARA AIRPORT
Santa Barbara Airport served over 1.2 million passengers in 2022 and is leading California Airports in post pandemic commercial service recovery. American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines serve the airport with 20 daily departures to 10 non-stop destinations – Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Seattle. SBA is a self-sustaining enterprise operated by the City of Santa Barbara.
I loved the idea of boarding a flight at SBA and then connecting to final destination via Dallas, Denver, or SFO. However, the flights departing SBA or so unreliable/late that I often miss my connection. It’s so undependable that I know drive or take the Airbus to LAX and go from there. SBA is useless to me.
SBA is becoming basically a hub of LAX north. The majority of passengers are not from Goleta or SB.
In the last few years traffic has increased exceedingly without public approval.
The city of Santa Barbara benefits (taxwise) from SBA with without affording any of the effects the airport creates in regards to air pollution, noise pollution and increased traffic.
How does SB get the financial rewards (taxes) of an airport not located in Santa Barbara?
This is what’s called a Shoestring Annexation, a fancy maneuver that was only used a few times and has since been made illegal. The real estate that the airport sits on was annexed to the city of Santa Barbara by 7 mile long “shoestring”, that’s only 300 feet wide, and the majority of it is under the Pacific Ocean.
The City of Goleta needs to challenge this annexation to get what appears to be out-of-control increase in flights, and expansion of the airport to protect the interests of Goleta citizens.
Many other counties in the US have challenged this type of annexation with success with the resulting tax revenue going to the locations where the airport actually exists.
The tax revenue from the airport for Goleta could finance basically every project lacking funds.
My apologies, I think that is total revenue. Cannot find how much SB makes off of SBA.
Goleta Local, If you look at the history of the airport property, when the airport was annexed to the City, Goleta wasn’t yet a city. The County didn’t want the responsibility to run the airport and the City leaders came up with that weird solution of the strip of ocean connecting the airport to the City. So it doesn’t look like a ploy to make a lot of money for the City but rather more as a way to provide continued operation of the existing airport.
I’m not sure I understand what you are saying “the majority of users aren’t even from SB or Goleta”. How is it a hub of LAX? My family used to always fly out of LAX due to cost and difficulty in getting reasonable flights out of SBA, but most of the time now, we just fly out of SBA. True, most people I know who fly into /out of SBA are my coworkers who live elsewhere and fly here for business, but I am not sure how that is any different.
The city of SB received $7.35 million in sales tax revenue during the quarter ended December 31, 2022.
Goleta Local, Was that Sales Tax from the Airport or from the entire City?
@ GoletaLocal….Santa Barbara Airport has ALWAYS been an island of the City of Santa Barbara…SB DOES rake in the money at SBA- Goleta will never get their hands on SB’s golden egg….
Does anyone know why the main runway doesn’t run ocean to mountains? The north south and the east west runways look to be the same lengths on the map and they both come close to the terminal. Having the main runway run south north would mean that landings and take offs would be over the ocean and not over the suburbs of Hope Ranch, Noleta and also Goleta.
You might be confusing a bunch of people that think the mountains are north and the ocean is south.
Oh, and I would not want to be on a flight that has to dodge those mountains.
Sorry Hope Ranch and Ellwood.
@Tsunami67: Airport main runways always run parallel with the direction of the prevailing winds, which in our case is out of the SSW. The two smaller runways are only used for general aviation (small planes) and are not used when the crosswinds are too high or conditions are not otherwise great.
6:46 – Perhaps you should acquire a compass.
The “main runway”, runway 25/07 is quite a bit longer than the parallel runways 15/33. Runway 25/07 is 6,052 feet, and runway 15/33 is 4,180 feet. The ILS 07 and VOR 25 approaches have initial approach fixes that start well away from the airport. The ILS system must be line-of-sight all the way from the final approach fix (out near Gaviota) to the airport. And, if an airplane on an instrument approach has to make a missed approach, it would be a very bad thing to be pointed at a mountain when you do it.
Sure hope SBA will be more “wholly compatible with the environment” than it has been in the past. Not “annexing” wetlands would be a good start.
Mini, I laughed out loud when I read that line. It’s simply impossible; in fact, just stupid.
With 18,000 complaints last year (mostly from adjacent areas to the airport), the facility has way outstripped its mission to serve local commuters, and has turned into a local nuisance. It took time. Increased boundaries for planes (and little to no monitoring when aircraft fly outside the boundaries), increased flights, 5 and 6 am flights, military flights, 300 commuter planes (more or less) coming in and out routinely, and an administration that is bought and paid for by the City of Santa Barbaraa, out of touch with the community that surrounds it. Sooner of later, this mess will be resolved in the courts unless drastic changes are made.
When we bought our home SBA had a fraction of the traffic so it was a non-issue. Now that they rolled in Alaska & SW the volume is simply more than should be allowed in our small town airport, and it’s not enough. SBA wants to further expand – to hell with the surrounding community – gross polluting from aircraft is ok, and if you agree, no complaining about big oil or climate change.
Goleta should challenge the illegal annexation, and take control of the airport by removing some carriers, and the flights that go with them. Problem solved, and tax revenue goes where it should Goleta.
Connect in Bakersfield instead of polluting beautiful Santa Barbara & Goleta.
2:50 funny but it seems the pilots for Southwest are always the ones not following the abatement program, so I don’t believe it’s a safety thing, rather a don’t care kind of thing.
I have watched 3 jets come in within 20 minutes, 2 following the abatement corridor, and one not (SWA).
In regards to when flights can land or take off, that can simply be regulated by removing the TSA folks from the terminal & tarmac. Not enough personnel available, no landing or departing.
GOLETA – but you bought a house by an airport. There have been commercial jets using SBA since I was a kid in the 70s. They were louder then too as someone pointed out. How are you surprised that there are more flights now? Cities grow, especially beautiful cities like ours. I’m sorry you didn’t consider this when you purchased your home near an airport, but it’s kind of hard to start demanding the airport limits flights.
Who said anything about Hope Ranch? If that’s where you live, then a couple things – not so sure about your screen name and also, spare us….. Hope Ranch is no where near the amount of noise people in Ellwood or near More Mesa are experiencing.
You say you shouldn’t have to “yield” and in the next sentence suggest SBA no longer provides flights to LAX…. You’re asking thousands of people a week to alter their business and travel plans so you don’t have to hear a plane fly over your home over 3 miles away from the airport. Don’t you see how silly that is?
This was interesting, but if you’re really in Hope Ranch, the validity of the concern is seriously diminished. I live 2 miles closer to the airport than you do and watch planes take off/land daily. Sure, it makes some noise, but that’s what happens in a city. There’s some noise for a few seconds a few times a day.
Sorry, hope ranch is not next to the airport. For 30+ years it has not been a problem. You are missing the point, the number of flights have increased exponentially in the last couple of years going completely unchecked. You are giving the impression that we as a community we must yield because someone decided to turn the airport into a cash cow, not because it was warranted. SBA does NOT need to be a commuter hub when LAX is 100 miles away or 15-20 minutes by air.
I have no problem with a few tourist flights, I love traveling – but this out of hand, and the city of SB does not care how loud, or how much the airlines are polluting our air.
I’m not “agreeing” to anything. I’m just saying if you move next to an airport in a tourist destination like SB, I can’t muster too much sympathy for you when you complain about the increase in flights over the years.
Sorry you feel that way. Just because some greedy folks want something, does not mean they should get it. Careful what your are agreeing to here.
GOLETA – I don’t get a penny from the airport, so not sure why you keep on about greed. I just don’t think it’s fair to demand travelers, airlines and airports change their schedules because some people who moved 3 miles away from an airport are complaining about hearing planes overhead. That’s all. We won’t convince each other otherwise.
Goleta Local, “… tolerate unwarranted / unneeded expansion just for the sake of money.” You obviously don’t understand the airline business. The airlines don’t just add flights and schedule planes on a whim. They only do it when the demand is large enough to support the schedule. If we, the public, didn’t demand it then the airlines wouldn’t be doing it.
I grew up in Goleta, and Hope ranch is next to More Mesa directly in the flight path.
I said SBA does not need to be a hub, when LAX is so close – and correct me if I’m wrong but SBA does not have any major carrier flights to LAX now because of that.
A few times a day? There will be 20 more arrivals and departures today and it’s 3PM.
What is silly is people who tolerate unwarranted / unneeded expansion just for the sake of money.
Greed is what is driving the increase in flights, not demand. The airlines are creating demand by using SBA as a hub “SBA has 20 daily nonstops to major hubs and endless options”
It does have to do with the communities surrounding the airport – why should they be burdened with the noise and pollution so airlines can make more money?
The fact is they don’t need to be – don’t let the airline folks make it sound like they are providing some great benefit to citizens of Goleta and SB, when in fact they are probably the biggest polluter in the county.
4:07 – If there’s no demand, how does greed come into it? Cognitive dissonance much?
It is interesting how airports, such as this one, are originally built away from the population centers and then people build houses and move closer and closer to the once distant airport. Finally the people that built or bought near the airport, while knowing that the airport is there, complain about the airport noise. Human nature I guess…
The issue is not the location of the airport – it is the massive increase in flights.
The airport used to have departures stopping at 10PM and did not start up until 6am the following day. The airport also used to enforce the noise abatement routes – but now are considered voluntary.
Now they have flights blasting off starting at 5:20am and don’t stop until midnight.
As Red creek states – they have overstepped, and are turning SBA into LAX.
Yeah, I’ve taken that early flight once or twice. So then here’s the question…. if SBA provides connections to flights at LAX and SF, how else are travelers to fly to these larger airports in time to connect to early flights? I don’t see how SBA would be of any value if they stopped early morning flights. Same with late night flights. How are people supposed to get home?
I don’t see SBA cancelling early/late flights any time soon. This would domino and could affect thousands of people a day, including pilots, staff, passengers, etc.
The schedule updates to the current time on the website. Believe me the first flight out is at 5:20 am everyday.
So to accommodate the few passengers who choose to take a early morning flight, getting to the airport at 4AM – make all of the folks in the surrounding areas listen to these flights every day?
Just because they decided to start doing this in recent years, does not mean it can’t be undone.
Why not just fly at say 10AM or 1PM?
GOLETALOCAL – looking at the SBA website schedule, it looks like there’s no commercial flights before 10am and only 3 after 10pm. Did they drop the early morning flights recently? https://flysba.santabarbaraca.gov/flights/arrivals-departures
As for the routes, I believe those are up to the pilot’s discretion and they factor in weather, wind direction/speed, etc to make the safest approach. When you have a plane with 100 people in it, I would hope you chose to fly over a couple houses and make 10 seconds of noise if it’s safer than turning sharply from the ocean route.
Goleta Local, SBA did NOT chose to increase flights. That is solely under the control of the airlines and they base their schedules on public demand. They don’t do it just to irritate you…
Goleta Local, The airport could never ENFORCE noise abatement routes. That is solely the purview of the FAA under Federal Regulations. The airport has always had an active noise abatement program that tries to educate the users but sometimes safety means that preferred routing can’t be followed. The scheduled flight hours are done by the airlines based upon customer demand, not set be the airport. Signed: A Commercial Pilot
It’s WAY more than a “few” passengers. People taking those morning flights do it for work, getting to Denver or Dallas in time for an afternoon meeting. It would mean changing the way some companies do business just because a few homeowners/renters who chose to live near an airport don’t like hearing airplanes. Honestly. People are demanding entire industries to change to accommodate their schedules and noise tolerance.
The earliest flights in the morning are Fedex.
SBA is no where near LAX in size, volume, noise or any metric on the planet.
People chose to move next to an airport. I’m sorry, but just because it’s allegedly noiser now, doesn’t absolve them. When you buy a home, you think about the area and the future. Just because it’s a small regional airport the day you buy it, you can’t ignore the fact that , as with EVERYTHING, it will grow to some extent.
The early and late flights are really the only thing practical to alter. Again though, people use SBA as a connection.
It’s WAY more than a few homeowners and it’s everyday.
These folks got to their jobs before SBA turned into LAX in the past – hop on the airbus or just move to where you work. Accommodating the few does not outweigh the lifestyles of the many.
SBA chose to increase the flights – the locals did not.
It’s not just noise – do understand the amount of pollution these jets are generating?
Not sure why environmentalists are turning a blind eye to these the mass polluters.
I read somewhere a 747 taking off for the first 5 miles is the equivalent of 3000 cars going 5 miles.
The demand is not there without the airlines pushing it. Read much?
Our neighbors just took a 5am flight to L.A. and they definitely don’t work for fedex.
Moving the airport is not going to happen. Same with Goleta ever getting ownership of the airport; I think that has already been litigated.
Passenger demand is high and flights out of SBA are pretty full, airlines are not going to downgrade to more flights in smaller planes that are actually more expensive to fly per passenger seat/mile. And prohibiting takeoffs before 0600 like they do in San Diego can backfire; for example, they have 11 flights a day scheduled to take off between 6:15 and 6:20. They takeoff every 90 seconds.
And when I lived in Elwood in the ’80s the planes coming in were way, way louder than the 737s we have now. Especially the 707s, which were really ear-splitting.
SBDUDE – good point about timing. As I mentioned, those early morning flights are scheduled to get passengers to connecting flights in LA/SF. Pushing flights to after 6am will result in many more per hour.
Landfill it out into the ocean
Karen: All this noise is awful. SBA needs to reduce their flight schedule!!!!! Smaller jets, too!
Also Karen: Hates driving to LAX, flies out of SBA three or four times per year.
Oh so more expansion and more flights, I get it. Why not go for international flights so we can bring in things like 777’s.
There has been a substantial increase in aircraft noise and it seems that has happened recently. Also flight patterns have changed and now some flights come from the East across a large swath of the cities in the area Southwest in particular seems to do that on most flights, I guess to show the colors…
Swarf, With only a 6,000 foot runway you don’t have to worry about SBA becoming a hub for international 777 flights. That runway is much too short for those flights.
Not too mention the terminal itself not being large enough to handle the traffic of international flights.
Is the increase in noise due to more flights or due to larger planes? The complaints are relentless on Next Door, coming from surrounding neighborhoods.
SacJon, The jets used today are much much quieter than those used 20-30 years ago. So perhaps it is due to increased schedules???
People who continue to claim that the City earns a lot of income from the airport just do not understand the fact that the airport is an enterprise fund for the City. All income from the operation of the airport stays in the airport budget.
529: Whether the City uses the airport as an enterprise fund or cash cow makes no difference to the surrounding community, which is being more and more negatively affected by the decisions of the out of touch City of Santa Barbara.
Getting bigger and bigger and louder and louder and trying to be environmentally compatible? Good luck.
Instead, why don’t they take the $100 million they budgeted for expansion and restore their historic resources? Become more friendly with the neighbors they take advantage of on a daily basis?
Would there be fewer noise complaints if the commercial flights in and out of SBA used smaller planes? The runway is 6,000′ long which is very close to the minimum length runway that a Boeing 737 can use. The short runway means rapid (noisy) braking on landing and rapid (noisy) acceleration on take off. The 737s are just noisier because they are larger and heavier planes than the smaller regional jets used previously. Limiting plane size would keep a local airport for puddlejumperflightss and would reduce the number of noise complaints.
The other (unpractical) option is to move the airport to a place where there is more space for a longer runway and fewer neighbours such as near Los Alamos. The Goleta airport site would be converted into a planned urban development for low to middle income housing.
Tsunami, Great ideas there! Use smaller planes so in order to satisfy the passenger demand just add double the flights. The airlines can just absorb the increased costs and the neighbors will absorb the increased noise frequency.
And do you have any idea as to how much it would cost and how extensive the local, state and federal process would be to “move the airport?”
Rebuild the hangers!!!