Bishop airport taxis toward expansion grants
A Commemorative Ceremony was held at the Eastern Sierra Regional Airport (ESRA) Terminal Building on April 18 to formally memorialize the cooperative efforts of both Inyo County and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and finalize an easement that covers more than 608 acres at the Bishop Airport.
The new easement provides the land tenure needed for Inyo County to receive grants from the Federal Aviation Authority for future airport improvements.
In the late 1920s, when the Bishop Airport was originally developed, LADWP granted Inyo County an easement on 198 acres east of Bishop for airport use. Over the years, especially during World War II, to accommodate needed expansion of the airport, LADWP entered into leases for additional land surrounding the original facility. In recent years Inyo County and the LADWP have been negotiating terms for a further easement over the existing runways and airport operational facilities, opening the door for more expansion projects and the FAA grants to pay for them.
Numerous dignitaries were on hand for the event, including Inyo County Administrative Officer, Kevin Carunchio, new LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols, Inyo County Board of Supervisors Chair Susan Cash, and other county and LADWP reps.
In 1928 aviation was a fledgling industry, with more airplanes than landing fields. Most were farmer’s pastures or simple graded dirt strips. Like the train and automobile, infrastructure was soon created to accommodate air travel.
A small field was built in the Sunland area not far from the Bishop golf course and was soon receiving planes. During WWII, the Army Air used the Bishop Airport to train pilots for combat and transport. The air field was returned to civilian hands in 1945.
Today the ESRA, situated on 800 acres of land east of Bishop and west of the Owens River, operates 362 days a year, seven days a week by a staff of two full-time employees and one part-time employee, who are also on-call year-round, 24 hours a day. ESRA has 7.5 miles of lighted runways – three in all – plus taxiways, hangars, a pilot’s lounge, and self- and full-service fueling.
The Owens Valley’s more stable weather conditions, almost equidistant location between L.A. and Reno, and proximity to the Bay Area and Central Valley make it a heavily-trafficked airport. Each winter ESRA sees a few dozen charter flights bound for the Mammoth-Yosemite Airport diverted to Bishop because of inclement weather.
In 2009/2010, the airport logged a total of 10,400 annual aircraft operations and 13,000 annual enplanements, including commercial, military and general aviation aircraft.
In 2010 Federal Express and UPS shipped more than 287,000 packages through the airport, which also is also home to Sierra Aviation (Air Ambulance and Charter Service), Black Mountain Air Service (Air charter and flight instruction), Hangar One (Aircraft maintenance) and the U.S. Forest Service Fire Fighting Tanker Base.
