Santa Barbara Airbus

What Santa Barbara Airbus does

Santa Barbara Airbus is a family-owned, second-generation ground transportation company founded on April 4, 1983, by Eric and Kelly Onnen and Mark Klopstein in Goleta, California. The company provides scheduled airport shuttle service between Santa Barbara County communities (Goleta, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Camarillo, and as of February 2026, Oxnard) and Los Angeles International Airport, operating 16 daily trips in each direction with multi-stop pickup routing. Beyond the LAX shuttle, the company operates private bus charters (21- to 56-passenger vehicles for weddings, corporate events, school trips, and sports/team travel), packaged day-trip tours to Los Angeles attractions (Dodgers games, Rams games, Broadway-style theater), and cruise terminal transfers to San Pedro and Long Beach. The fleet comprises approximately 20 MCI-style tour coaches plus several deluxe mini coaches, including newly acquired 2024 Mercedes Tourrider premium vehicles.

The underlying technology is minimal and commodity: a web-based reservation and ticketing system branded "Airbus TripPlanner," GPS-enabled dispatch, onboard Wi-Fi on most coaches, and vehicle air filtration systems introduced as part of a post-COVID #RollingResponsibly safety campaign. There is no proprietary software, no API, no mobile application, and no documented AI/ML capability — the operational backbone is a fleet of motorcoaches driven by professional drivers rather than a technology platform.

The business model is transactional and direct-to-consumer, with revenue generated from per-passenger shuttle fares ($50–$120 per one-way or round-trip segment depending on location, advance purchase, and party size), per-engagement charter quotes (variable by vehicle size, duration, and destination with 50% deposits), bundled day-trip packages ($170–$229 per person including event tickets), parking fees ($10/day at Goleta and La Cumbre), and ancillary baggage fees ($5–$25 per excess bag). Distribution is primarily through the company's website, toll-free and local phone reservations, in-person service at the Goleta headquarters, and a dedicated charter sales contact — with no third-party reseller or aggregator channel. Customer segments are horizontally diversified across individual travelers, wedding parties, corporate groups, school groups, sports/team travel, day-trip enthusiasts, and cruise passengers, with no single segment or named customer dominating the revenue mix.

Name

Santa Barbara Airbus

Legal name

Santa Barbara Airbus

Website

https://sbairbus.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1983

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Santa Barbara Airbus is a family-owned ground transportation company founded in 1983, providing scheduled LAX shuttle service, private charters, day-trip tours, and cruise terminal transfers for individual travelers, weddings, corporate groups, schools, and sports teams across the Santa Barbara-to-Los Angeles corridor.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Ground Transportation Services

NAICS

Charter Bus Industry (48551), Tour Operators (561520)

SIC

Local & Suburban Transit & Interurban Hwy Passenger Trans (4100)

akta.pro primary industry

Corporate & Employee Shuttle Charters (THAIAIAC)

Keywords

• Airport shuttle service
• Charter bus rental
• Group transportation services
• Intercity shuttle services
• Coach bus tours

Headquarters

HQ city

Goleta

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices8 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. LAX Shuttle Service: Scheduled daily shuttle service between Santa Barbara area cities (Goleta, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Camarillo, Oxnard) and Los Angeles International Airport. Revenue is generated through per-passenger ticket sales with one-way and round-trip options, prepaid discounts, and multi-passenger volume discounts.
2. Private Bus Charters: Custom transportation for weddings, corporate events, school trips, team travel, and special occasions using 21-56 passenger vehicles. Pricing varies by vehicle size, trip duration, and destination. Requires 50% deposit, with final payment 14 days prior.
3. Day Trips & Tours: Bundled package tours including round-trip transportation and event tickets to Los Angeles destinations (Dodgers games, theater shows, Rams games). Revenue is generated through package pricing per person.
4. Parking Services: Daily parking at Goleta headquarters for $10/day with roundtrip booking; free parking for day trip passengers. Santa Barbara La Cumbre parking available for first 5 days free, then $10/day.
5. Baggage & Excess Luggage Fees: Fees for excess baggage including second bag ($5), third bag ($20), fourth bag ($25), golf clubs ($10), surfboards and bikes ($20).

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Santa Barbara Airbus provides scheduled daily ground transportation (shuttle bus service) between Santa Barbara County communities (Goleta, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Camarillo, Oxnard) and Los Angeles International Airport, with 16 daily trips. The company also offers private bus charters for weddings, corporate events, school trips, and team travel; bundled day trip excursion packages to LA sporting events and theater; and cruise terminal shuttles to Long Beach and San Pedro. Service is delivered via a fleet of approximately 20 tour coaches and mini coaches carrying 21-56 passengers.

Product overview

Santa Barbara Airbus is a family-owned transportation company operating since 1983, offering a portfolio of ground transportation services across the Central Coast of California. The core offering consists of LAX Shuttle Bus Service (scheduled airport shuttles between Santa Barbara County and Los Angeles International Airport with 16 daily trips), Private Bus Charters (for weddings, corporate events, school trips, and team travel with vehicles accommodating 21-56 passengers), Day Trips & Tours (packaged excursions including event tickets and transportation), and Cruise Ship Terminal Shuttles (service to Long Beach and San Pedro cruise terminals). The company maintains a diverse fleet including mini coaches (24 passengers), 47-passenger tour coaches, and 56-passenger deluxe/premium Mercedes coaches, all equipped with amenities such as WiFi, air conditioning, restrooms (full-size coaches), reclining seats, and entertainment systems.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• LAX Shuttle Bus Service Daily scheduled shuttle service transporting individual passengers between Santa Barbara County cities (Goleta, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Camarillo, Oxnard) and Los Angeles International Airport, with 16 daily trips in each direction and flag-stop pickup locations.
• Private Bus Charters Custom quote-based charter transportation for groups of 21-56 passengers for weddings, corporate events, school field trips, sports teams, and team travel throughout Southern California. ADA-compliant vehicles available with 24-hour notice.
• Day Trips and Tours Guided day excursion packages that bundle round-trip transportation with event tickets/entrance fees to Los Angeles sporting events (Dodgers games, Rams games) and theater productions (Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast), priced per person at $170-$229.
• Cruise Ship Terminal Shuttles Transportation service to and from the Long Beach Cruise Terminal and the Port of Los Angeles World Cruise Center (San Pedro, Piers 91, 92, 93) for cruise passengers, with door-to-port service requiring minimum 2 passengers and only operating on cruise days.

Quantifiable outcome

• 3 million passengers transported over 42 years
• +2 more outcomes

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Flixbus: Intercity bus operator with growing service across California. While not specifically a Santa Barbara-to-LAX airport shuttle, it competes for price-sensitive intercity travelers and represents a broader incumbent in motor-coach ground transportation.
• Coach USA: Large North American charter and scheduled motor-coach operator with multi-state service and a significant charter fleet. Competes in the same charter-bus category as SBA at a broader geographic scale, representing the larger-incumbent peer in charter motor-coach ground transportation.
• Amtrak Thruway: Connecting motor-coach services operated as part of Amtrak's national rail network, including California routes that overlap with the Central Coast–to–greater-Los Angeles travel corridor. Comparable scheduled intercity bus service but bundled with Amtrak rail reservations.

Emerging players

• CharterUP: Online marketplace for charter bus rentals across North America. Targets the same wedding, corporate, school, and sports-team charter customers as SBA but with a digital self-service quoting and booking model — an emerging technological substitute for traditional quote-driven charter sales.
• Zum: Tech-enabled student transportation platform serving K-12 districts across the US. Competes with SBA for the school-group and student-athlete charter segment that represents a meaningful share of SBA's charter volume, and represents the digital-first direction school transportation is moving.

Direct peers

• FlyAway (LAX FlyAway): LAWA-operated scheduled bus service providing airport transfers to and from LAX terminals. Directly comparable to SBA in that both run fixed-schedule, multi-stop airport shuttle service targeting price-sensitive solo and small-group travelers — FlyAway from points across greater LA, SBA from the Central Coast.
• Roadrunner Shuttle: California-based regional airport shuttle operator with overlapping service in the Central Coast and Southern California. Comparable fleet (motor coaches and shuttle vehicles), scheduled service model, and shared customer base of airport-transfer travelers.
• Clean Air Express: Southern California scheduled airport shuttle operator competing in overlapping Central Coast-to-LAX service area. Operates a similar point-to-point scheduled model with comparable fare bands and target customer (airline passengers, UCSB students, Central Coast residents), making it the closest direct substitute for SBA's core LAX shuttle.
• Prime Time Shuttle: LAX-area shared-ride and private shuttle operator serving Southern California. Comparable in serving the same LAX end-customer with door-to-door and shared-ride ground transportation, and competes for similar discretionary and corporate travelers.
• Ventura County Airporter: Ventura County-based airport shuttle operator providing scheduled service to LAX from communities including Ventura, Oxnard, Camarillo, and Thousand Oaks. Competes head-on with SBA's Ventura County stops and shares the same airport-transfer customer.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/SBAirbus

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Santa Barbara Airbus