Summary
- Santa Barbara Airport has closed again due to severe flooding.
- Nearly 35 flights were canceled on Monday as a result of the closure.
- The airport will remain shutdown until water on the airfield recedes.
Torrential rain leading to severe flooding prompted the closure of Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (SBA) on Monday. The shutdown of the Southern California airport remains until at least early Tuesday morning and resulted in more than 30 flight cancelations.
It is the second time the airport has closed due to flooding in the past two weeks. Earlier this month, a strong atmospheric river producing several inches of rain, flash floods, and widespread power outages battered the region and shut down SBA.
“Significant flooding”
Early Monday morning, at around 4:00, the airport announced the closure, citing “flooding on the airfield.” This resulted in the initial cancelation of all commercial flights and paused private and general aviation operations. Additionally, the terminal was “closed until further notice.”
Photo: Santa Barbara Municipal Airport
More than 12 hours later, well into the afternoon, the airport posted an update, notifying that conditions were still not up to par to reopen.
“Santa Barbara Airport remains closed until further notice. The airfield experienced significant flooding due to the storm. Crews are working on accessible areas and continuously monitoring the impacted areas to begin clean up as soon as possible. Please continue checking directly with your airline for updated flight status.”
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Photos and videos in a series of posts on X by pilot Maxwell Rosenberg show the flooded airfield, with a handful of Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and American Airlines aircraft in the background.
As of 16:45 on Monday, airport officials confirmed that the airfield would remain closed for the rest of the day but said another update on reopening would be provided overnight.
“The airfield experienced significant flooding and water is not expected to recede enough to open for the remainder of today. Next update will be at 2 AM,” the airport explained. “Please continue checking directly with your airline for flight status.”
Video footage from Rosenberg shows crews driving through several inches of water on the airfield.
Nearly 35 cancelations
According to FlightAware, there were a total of 34 canceled flights as of 22:45 Monday. 12 flights operated by Southwest, while 10 were United. SkyWest Airlines, which operates some flights for Alaska Airlines and handles regional flights branded as American Eagle and United Express, had eight cancelations. The remaining four were operated by American and Alaska.
The destinations of the flights included Denver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas/Fort Worth, Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Sacramento, and Oakland. The airport’s closure also caused canceled flights originating from those destinations.
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On Monday afternoon, Santa Barbara County officials confirmed that the storm’s severity had passed, but rain is still expected through the middle of the week.
“The heaviest rains have passed; however, rain is forecast to continue through Wednesday, February 21 with the potential for short duration heavy downpours. Residents should remain vigilant of changing conditions.”
Two times in one month
It is unclear whether the conditions at the airport will be favorable for a reopening on Tuesday, but airlines seem to be moving forward as if they will. American currently has its first flight to Phoenix listed as delayed by one hour, while the second flight, operated by SkyWest, is on-time. United and Southwest also have departures to Denver listed as on-time; awaiting the latest update from the airport.
SBA closed due to similar conditions on February 5th; however, impacts were not as severe as the closure only lasted three hours, from 09:30 to 12:30.
