Definition
An airport depicted on an instrument approach chart that does not physically exist on the ground, used as a reference point to allow standard instrument approach procedures to be designed and flown to runways or landing areas that lack the navigation geometry needed for a conventional approach. The fictional airport provides a charted reference from which approach minimums, courses, and missed approach instructions can be constructed.
Plain English
A make-believe airport printed on an approach chart. It is not a real place you can land at; it is a reference point used to design the approach procedure for a real runway nearby.
Context Anchor
Seen in chart legends, training handbooks, sample airport diagrams, and exam questions where airport information is being demonstrated.
Derivation
Fictional comes from the Latin fictio, meaning something made or invented. Here it signals that the airport on the chart is a designed reference, not a real airfield.
Why Pilots Care
Knowing the charted airport is a reference point, not a destination, prevents confusion when reading the approach plate. Pilots need to follow the procedure as drawn while understanding that the actual landing will occur at the real runway the procedure serves.
Intuition Check
Do not read Fictional Airport as meaning a private, closed, hidden, or rarely used airport. It means the airport is invented for an example and does not exist as a usable real airport.
Example Sentence 1
The approach chart used a fictional airport as the reference point so that standard minimums could be published for the runway.
Example Sentence 2
Instructors sometimes create a fictional airport for classroom exercises on airport signage and markings.