Is Santa Barbara Airlines Still Flying?

Santa Barbara Airlines' IATA code was S3, with ICAO code BBR.

At its height, Santa Barbara Airlines operated domestic Venezuelan routes alongside international service to destinations including the US, Ecuador, Panama, Curaçao, Colombia, and Spain, though its network had already been sharply reduced before the final 2018 shutdown.

Venezuela's currency controls made it extremely difficult for airlines to convert local ticket sales into foreign currency, causing many international carriers to exit the country. Santa Barbara suspended its Miami and Panama routes in late 2017 due to lack of capacity, was formally suspended by regulators in early 2018, and ultimately ceased operations entirely in April 2018.

Yes, the broader Venezuelan economic and currency crisis in the 2010s led to a significant exodus of both Venezuelan and international airlines from the country's market, with Santa Barbara among several domestic carriers affected.

No. Since Santa Barbara Airlines does not operate flights, you can't book tickets directly with it. Search for your route under current carriers serving Venezuela instead.

Other Venezuelan and regional carriers absorbed some of the demand for Santa Barbara's former routes, though Venezuela's overall airline capacity has remained significantly reduced compared to the pre-crisis years.

Search for your origin and destination under current airlines serving Venezuela's Simón Bolívar International Airport.

There's no indication of an active relaunch plan — the airline's voluntary 2018 certificate return has remained permanent to date.

Yes, a Santa Bárbara Airlines flight crashed in the Venezuelan Andes in 2008 near Mérida, one of the deadliest incidents in the airline's history — though this predates the airline's later financial collapse and 2018 shutdown by a decade.