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Eastern Sierra Regional Airport lies two miles east of Bishop, California, in the Owens Valley beneath the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada, at a field elevation of 4,108 ft. Once Bishop Army Airfield in the Second World War, it is today an uncontrolled county-operated field with three sealed runways, an ILS approach, and limited scheduled airline service alongside general aviation and mountain flying traffic.
Eastern Sierra Regional Airport, formerly Bishop Army Airfield, sits two miles east of the town of Bishop in Inyo County, California, on land leased from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. It is owned by the City of Los Angeles and operated by Inyo County. For a simulator pilot the field is notable for its combination of a high-desert Owens Valley setting hard against the Sierra Nevada, a wartime military past, three long sealed runways including one served by an ILS, and present-day mixed use by general aviation, seasonal regional airline service and cargo feeder flights.
The airport lies in Inyo County immediately east of Bishop, in the Owens Valley between the Sierra Nevada to the west and the White Mountains to the east. It operates without a control tower, with overlying air traffic services provided by Oakland Center, and pilots can also reach Riverside Radio via a remote outlet for flight service assistance.
The airport has three physical asphalt runways, each hard-surfaced and lit. Runway 12/30 is the longest at 7,493 ft. Runway 17/35 is 5,600 ft and is equipped with an ILS on runway 17. Runway 08/26 is 5,557 ft.
Traffic at the airport uses CTAF/UNICOM on 123 MHz. Weather is available from the field's ASOS on 119.025 MHz. Riverside Radio can be contacted via a remote radio outlet on 122.6 MHz for flight service needs. Runway 17 is served by an ILS approach.
The airport is located two miles east of the town of Bishop, in the Owens Valley, with the Sierra Nevada rising immediately to the west and the White Mountains to the east, giving pilots strong terrain references for locating and approaching the field from either direction.
The airfield opened in April 1940 on land subleased from Inyo County. During the Second World War it operated as Bishop Army Airfield, serving as a sub-base to Muroc Army Airfield in 1942 and 1943 under Fourth Air Force for aircraft flight and ordnance delivery training, before being reassigned to Tonopah Army Airfield, Nevada, in 1943; the site was also used for aircraft maintenance and ordnance storage. After the war it passed to Air Technical Service Command as a storage airfield, and the Army's original lease was cancelled in 1949 under the War Assets Administration's Peacetime Reduction Mission, returning the field to civil control. The U.S. Air Force later subleased runway and heliport rights from Inyo County between 1965 and 1971, and again from 1980 to 1985, for helicopter and aircraft performance testing, during which Department of Defense works included runway expansion and new fuel, maintenance and barracks facilities. The field has also seen a succession of commuter airlines over the decades, including Trans Sierra Airlines, Sierra Pacific Airlines, Air Sierra, Wings West Airlines, Mojave Airlines and Alpha Air, flying to destinations such as Los Angeles, San Jose, Burbank, Las Vegas, Fresno, San Diego, Ontario and Oakland. The airport has also been the scene of serious accidents, including the 1974 crash of Sierra Pacific Airlines Flight 802, a Convair 440, shortly after takeoff, which killed all 36 aboard, among them most of a film crew working for David L. Wolper Productions.
The airport is owned by the City of Los Angeles and leased to and operated by Inyo County. Scheduled passenger service returned in December 2021 when SkyWest Airlines, operating as United Express, began seasonal nonstop flights using Bombardier CRJ700 and Embraer ERJ 175 regional jets, with daily service to San Francisco and Denver added from December 2022. Cargo feeder flights are operated under FedEx Feeder branding by West Air and Ameriflight, linking Bishop with Inyokern, Ontario and Tonopah. The airport supports a substantial general aviation population, with 39 aircraft based there, predominantly single-engine types, alongside multi-engine, jet and ultra-light aircraft, and it handles an average of around 34 aircraft operations a day, the large majority general aviation.
