Edhat Staff
Source: Santa Barbara Airport
In a surprise announcement, Sun Country Airlines announced today that it will begin service from Santa Barbara to Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (MSP) on August 16, 2018. This comes only one day after Frontier Airlines announced its entrance to Santa Barbara with service to Denver International Airport (DEN) on August 21. Like Frontier, Sun Country is known as an Ultra-Low Cost Carrier (ULCC) offering a smorgasbord of ‘pay as you use’ amenities.
“As Santa Barbara’s tourism industry works to bring back visitors, the addition of direct service from Minneapolis is a welcome surprise,” said Airport Director Hazel Johns. The service will run seasonally two days a week, Thursdays and Sundays. For Santa Barbara residents, a connection to the nation’s 17th largest international airport with numerous East Coast and even international destinations becomes one more affordable and convenient option.
Santa Barbara Airport served 711,000 passengers in 2017 and is the 13th largest airport in California. SBA’s architecturally-praised and LEED certified new airline terminal opened in 2011 and features state-of-the-art amenities and efficient passenger security screening. The airport is served by Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines with 21 daily departures to seven non-stop destinations – Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. The airport resides on the site of a former World War II Marine Air Station, next to the Pacific Ocean and the University of California at Santa Barbara, and is conveniently located just 7 miles west of downtown Santa Barbara. SBA is a self-sustaining enterprise operated by the City of Santa Barbara.
Past Articles
May 1, 2018: Frontier Airlines Back at Santa Barbara Airport
Good work, SBA. Next goal: 100% success rating that SBA checked luggage arrives with the passenger.
sun country is the airline that made the news stranding passengers in mexico in april……between Frontier(3 flights a week) and Sun Country(2 flights a week) that is not much help to our community. I agree that reinstating Delta’s service to Salt Lake would be way more useful. What’s next? Allegiant!?
the airport authority is desperate for revenue….but santa Barbara needs something more than these 2 third-tier carriers