The Santa Barbara Airport serves the Santa Barbara area. Commercial service began in 1932 with Pacific Seaboard Airlines , and United Airlines inaugurated service from Santa Barbara/Goleta in 1936. Its three-letter IATA airport code is SBA.

The airport is located about ten miles west of downtown Santa Barbara, adjacent to the University of California, Santa Barbara and the city of Goleta. Much of the airport is between 10 and 15 feet above sea level, and it is bordered by the wetland area known as the Goleta Slough.

Many airlines serve the Airport as of early 2005 with 45 daily departures to ten U.S. cities (see below).

In 2000, an estimated 776,904 passengers used the airport.

List of airlines serving Santa Barbara Airport

• Mesa Air dba America West Express (Las Vegas and Phoenix)
• American Eagle dba American Eagle, Continental Connection, Delta Connection, and Northwest Airlink (Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles)
• SkyWest dba Delta Connection (Salt Lake City)
• Horizon Air (Portland and Seattle)
• SkyWest dba United Express (Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Jose)