# Bicycle Lake Army Air Field (BYS)

> Fort Irwin/Barstow, US · IATA: BYS · ICAO: KBYS · Medium Airport

## Quick Facts

| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| IATA | `BYS` |
| ICAO | `KBYS` |
| City | Fort Irwin/Barstow |
| Country | US |
| Type | Medium Airport |
| Elevation | 716 m |
| Cargo | ❌ |
| GPS | 35.28050, -116.63000 |

## Description

Ten brigade rotations a year, each lasting 28 days, bring armoured units into the Mojave Desert, and Bicycle Lake Army Air Field (BYS/KBYS) is how much of that force and its equipment arrives by air. Owned and operated by the US Army, the field sits on a dry lakebed roughly five kilometres northeast of the Fort Irwin cantonment in San Bernardino County, California, with two gravel runways of 9,500 ft (2,900 m) and 5,800 ft (1,770 m) at 2,350 ft elevation. It is closed to civil aviation: designated private and military use, it has no scheduled services, no commercial freight terminal, no forwarder or customs presence, so commercial air cargo does not route through it at all. Regional freight travels by road and rail instead, with Barstow some 60 km southwest at the Interstate 15/40 junction hosting one of BNSF's principal classification yards. Shippers needing airlift work through Ontario International (ONT), about 175 km southwest and the main air freight field of the Inland Empire, or Southern California Logistics Airport at Victorville (VCV) some 115 km away; the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach lie roughly 270 km distant. The development to watch nearby is BNSF's Barstow International Gateway, a 4,500-acre multi-billion-dollar rail complex cleared by the Barstow City Council in 2025 and targeted to open in late 2028.

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*Freight Academy — Airport Profile: [https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/bicycle-lake-army-air-field-airport-bys](https://www.freight-academy.com/en/information/airports/bicycle-lake-army-air-field-airport-bys)*

*Markdown mirror: [https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/bicycle-lake-army-air-field-airport-bys](https://www.freight-academy.com/api/md/airports/en/bicycle-lake-army-air-field-airport-bys)*

*LLM-Summary (JSON): https://www.freight-academy.com/api/v1/airports/bicycle-lake-army-air-field-airport-bys/llm-summary*