Two years later the Loughead brothers, who later changed their name to Lockheed, established a seaplane factory on State Street (Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company) and constructed a wooden ramp on West Beach to launch their planes.

In 1928, Gordon Sackett and Royce Stetson landed a Hisso-powered airplane in a cow pasture near the corner of Hollister and Fairview Avenues and set up a flight school.

Western General set up shop and began producing Meteor airplanes, while Santa Barbara Airways' founder Frederick Stearns II built two additional runways and two large hangars.

[7] The original Spanish-style terminal building, commissioned by United Airlines in 1942 was designed by William Edwards and Joseph Plunkett, an architectural team whose work, including the Arlington Theatre and the National Armory, helped shape the Mediterranean style of the city.

The development of the University of California, Santa Barbara (to the southwest) and the construction of hangars in support of production of the Aero Spacelines Super Guppy (to the northeast) were factors in the removal of this runway.

[10] In late 2019, the fourth boarding bridge was installed to replace a hardstand to help the airport cope with increased flight activity and upgauging.

In 1933, Pacific Seaboard was operating two daily round trip flights with single engine Bellanca CH-300s Los Angeles–Santa Barbara–Santa Maria–San Luis Obispo–Paso Robles–Monterey–Salinas–San Jose–San Francisco.

The Southwest March 1, 1947, timetable lists two round trip Douglas DC-3s flying Los Angeles–Oxnard–Santa Barbara–Santa Maria–San Luis Obispo–Coalinga–Monterey–Santa Cruz/Watsonville–San Jose–San Francisco.

Pacific Air Lines operated the first jet service into Santa Barbara in 1966 with Boeing 727-100s; the January 4, 1967, timetable lists 727s flying San Francisco–Monterey–Santa Barbara–Los Angeles.

[13] The United Airlines timetable dated February 1, 1937, listed a daily service operated with a Douglas DC-3 on a routing of Los Angeles–Santa Barbara–San Francisco–Oakland and back.

[14] The primary United routes from Santa Barbara were nonstops to Los Angeles and San Francisco with some continuing to other cities.

Service was originally operated with Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia commuter propjets to SFO and LAX and CRJ200 regional jets to Denver.

In June 2016 American Eagle relaunched nonstop service to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) on Mesa Airlines Canadair CRJ-900s.

From June 15, 2017, to August 26, 2017, Horizon returned to Santa Barbara by taking over the Seattle route from SkyWest with its own Embraer E-175s.

On August 27, 2017, Alaska Airlines began mainline service to Santa Barbara for the first time when it took over the Seattle route from Horizon with its own Boeing 737s.

but it ended at the start of 2023 Sun Country Airlines was serving Santa Barbara twice weekly in 2018 between August and December to Minneapolis–St.

Contour then announced an expansion of Santa Barbara as a focus city, and added a flight to Sacramento International Airport in April 2019.

[21] In the 1980s Santa Barbara–based Apollo Airways, a commuter airline which subsequently changed its name to Pacific Coast Airlines, flew Handley Page HP.137 Jetstream propjets from the airport with nonstop service to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Jose (CA), Monterey, Fresno and Bakersfield with direct flights to Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

[23] Another locally based airline was Connectair operating Fairchild F-27J turboprops with nonstop flights to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and San Jose, California.

Continental Airlines Boeing 737-300s flew nonstop to Denver (some flights stopped at Bakersfield enroute from SBA).

A number of commuter air carriers served Santa Barbara over the years primarily with turboprop aircraft.

In 1968, Cable Commuter Airlines was operating de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter service to LAX.

[27] According to the OAG, turboprop aircraft operated into SBA by these commuter airlines included the Beechcraft 1900C, British Aerospace BAe Jetstream 31, de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Dash 8, Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante, Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia, Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner (Metro II and Metro III models), Saab 340B and Short 360.