Man finally gives up on fictitious airport after 20 years ‒ and £25,000

‘The sign can come down but the airport is still there. The airport exists in the same way that songs exist,’ says joke’s creator

The Llandegley International Airport sign has been up for 20 years (geograph.org.uk/chris whitehouse)

The man behind a completely fictitious airport in Wales has called time on the project, after spending 20 years and around £25,000 keeping it going.

The unusual joke first began in 2002, when Nicholas Whitehead paid to put up a sign to the completely non-existent Llandegley International Airport.

Put up just outside the village of the same name in the county of Powys, the sign directs people to terminal 1 and 3, indicating that they are 2.5 miles away.

However, anyone unlucky enough to follow the directions will find nothing more than empty fields; the nearest airstrip is 150km away.

A writer and journalist, Mr Whitehead said he first came up with the surreal comedic concept after a conversation with friends.

“We thought of renting a sign for something that wasn’t really there, possibly a project that didn’t exist, and we settled on the airport,” he told the Daily Mail.

The joke evolved over the years online, with a spoof protest against airport expansion - “No 2 Runway” - an advert for “pretend flying lessons”, and a social media post decrying Russian private jets landing at the airport without permission before passengers escaped on fold-up bikes.

However, the long-standing joke, though popular, has not been without cost ‒ specifically around £1,500 a year to keep the sign and pay for maintenance costs.

Though he is letting go of the project, Mr Whitehead has said he hopes Cadw, the arm of the Welsh government responsible for the country’s national heritage, will take up his mantle.

“I think the airport is established now ‒ and I think the establishment should take it on,” he told BBC South Wales.

But even if they decline, Mr Whitehead says the non-existent airport will forever exist.

“The sign is just a sign,” he said. “The sign can come down but the airport is still there. The airport exists in the same way that songs exist.”