Santa Barbara Airlines began as a regional carrier with its base in Santa Barbara del Zulia, a small city in the northwest of Venezuela. Its first aircraft were ATR 42 aircraft which were later supplemented by Cessna Caravan.As time went by, Santa Barbara expanded throughout the land and also began services to nearby international destinations with Boeing 727-200 aircraft. In 2002, Santa Barbara took over the Caracas-Madrid - route from AVENSA which was in financial trouble. The aircraft for this route, #178, also came from AVENSA and was supplied by a second ex-AVENSA DC-10, #133. The airline is Venezuela's largest carrier (only slighltly larger than Aeropostal), but fill face heavy competition from state-controlled Conviasa in the future. After having technical trouble with the DC-10 in 2005, the airline decided to replace the aircraft by 767s. Santa Barbara's fleet currently consists of Boeing 767-300ER, Boeing 757-200, Boeing 727-200, ATR 42 and Cessna Caravan.
Following aircraft were operated by or for the Santa Barbara Airlines:
