Pranksters left passengers in a 'state of panic', thinking they had arrived at the wrong London airport.
Arrivals into London Gatwick were shocked to see large, white lettering before the runway reading 'Welcome to Luton'.
The prank which had been written in a field near the airport in Sussex was designed to convince them they were 120km off course at the North London airport.
One passenger, Abbey Desmond, saw the funny side from her flight into Gatwick from Cancun. "Great Prank, deffo at Gatwick," she tweeted.
Talking to ITV, the passenger admitted it did worry her at first.
"Honestly we were just looking out the window and saw it! We were about to land and in a state of panic until staff confirmed on landing we were actually at Gatwick," she said.
"So I posted it to Twitter to give everyone else a laugh and it has blown up."
Prankster and viral YouTuber Max Fosh claimed the stunt.
After gaining 2000 retweets and 28 thousand likes, many comments on the viral post said that the real joke was on passengers thinking that Gatwick or Luton were "London airports".
While the prankster has yet to reveal his intentions the stunt provoked a debate as to how airports as far away as Oxford and Ashford can claim to be serving the capital.
