Craig McCaw's Challenger 604 N222MC flies from Palm Springs to Santa Barbara

Craig McCaw's Bombardier Challenger 604, tail number N222MC, landed at Santa Barbara Municipal Airport (KSBA) on Monday, October 19, 2026, at 00:33 UTC. The aircraft departed from Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport (KTRM) in Palm Springs at 23:51 UTC the previous day. The flight took 42 minutes to cover the 204 nautical miles between the two airports. This was the fifth landing at Santa Barbara by McCaw's aircraft in the tracked window.

The great-circle distance for this leg was 204 nm, or 235 miles. The aircraft's average ground speed was 291 knots, and it reached a top ground speed of 442 knots. The highest altitude recorded was 22,025 feet. Based on our estimates, the flight burned about 197 US gallons of jet fuel, producing about 1,890 kg of CO2, roughly the same as driving a car 4,679 miles. The Challenger 604 is a large-cabin jet with a range of 3,900 nautical miles, a ceiling of 41,000 feet, and seating for up to 12 passengers.

Santa Barbara is a frequent stop for McCaw's aircraft. In the 30 days before this flight, his planes landed at KSBA four times, with the previous landing on October 16, 2026. The home base on file is King County International Airport - Boeing Field (KBFI) in Seattle. Other usual destinations include Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey, Jackson Hole Airport, Palm Springs International Airport, San Francisco International Airport, Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, and Juneau International Airport. Recent flights by N222MC included a Santa Barbara-to-Palm Springs leg on October 17, and a Palm Springs-to-Santa Barbara leg on October 16.

Craig McCaw is a Pacific Northwest businessman who built McCaw Cellular Communications and sold it to AT&T in 1994 for $11.5 billion. He later led Nextel, co-founded Teledesic with Bill Gates, and founded Clearwire. He runs Eagle River Inc. and co-chairs Pendrell. McCaw's business interests have long been based around Carillon Point in Kirkland, Washington. Santa Barbara is not known to be a hub for his companies, and no scheduled public appearance or corporate event tied to McCaw was found near the airport.

No news reports link this specific flight to any business meeting or personal event. The aircraft is registered to Flight Management LLC in Kirkland, Washington, not to McCaw personally. The 'MC' tail numbers on his four aircraft align with that address, but no filing or news report confirms the ownership. The flight is part of a pattern of short hops between Southern California airports in recent days.

The Challenger 604 used only 5 percent of its range on this flight. The aircraft's top speed is Mach 0.82, or 459 knots. It burns about 280 US gallons of fuel per hour. The runway at Santa Barbara is 6,037 feet long and sits at 13 feet elevation. Palm Springs' runway is 8,500 feet long at 115 feet below sea level.

The Challenger 604 arrived at Santa Barbara just after midnight, completing a routine short hop from Palm Springs. The aircraft remains at KSBA as of this report.

Santa Barbara was the most common destination, with four landings. Victoria, British Columbia, and Seattle each saw two landings. The longest leg in that window was a 4,070-nautical-mile flight from Farnborough, Hampshire, to Abbotsford on September 30, 2026, flown by the same Challenger 604.