Stansted Airport, Stansted

Not the biggest fan of Stansted, aside from the fact that you can get REALLY cheap flights from here. Personally I find the huge groups of younger adults heading off to warm climes and loudly discussing just how pissed they’re going to get when they get there a bit off-putting.
Once through security there isn’t the biggest choice of things to do, but there is some. If you have a huge delay you’ll probably go a bit stir crazy, but at least if you go to your gate you’ll probably get the chance to lay out and sleep. One thing that I noticed and appreciated about the airport was the wall sockets. There were quite a few of them, often you see people fighting over them at airports.
Basically it’s a bog standard airport with nothing overly interesting about it. But it gets the job done

It’s alright, isn’t it?

It feels a bit like a flat pack airport - like BAA ordered a 'medium large Ayrpoort’ and knocked it up in 3 hours with a screwdriver and the heel of your chunkiest boots for a makeshift hammer.

I have no idea what Stansted Express GiovanniCosta got that only took 5 minutes. Mine took at least 49, and cost almost as much as my flights. My point is that this is not a convenient airport for London but is probably as convenient as Heathrow.

Queues were fine, staff were grumpy.

On the way back it was the first time that the passport control guy did a double take with my passport (I have blonde hair now, it is brunette in the picture).

Stansted is Ryanair’s boss airport and nearly all of their destinations are available to fly to from here.

This airport is great. You can get dropped off at the doors and the size of the airport means that you are not overwhelmed. Check in is easy to find and you are then pushed towards the shopping areas. Once you ahev passed passport control you can visit the duty free shops. There are many here and a great range of them. The electrical shop has good prices and is great for forgotten batteries etc. Pick up a couple of books at WH Smith and then settle down to wait with a coffee, or go to the pub and order a breakfast or dinner. The transffer times from the main tconcourse to the gartes vary, but none are too far - the furthest i think is about 10 minutes - combined shuttle and walking.

Great airport,much better than heathrow - loads of shops suh s WHSMith, bars and restuarants, coffee shops, boots, etc., there is handy FREE transit system to get you to and from the terminal. There is a lot of seating space and from my experience - no delays, not far from central london and a £8 coach ticket will get you there or get a stansted express train and get there in 5 minutes

Stansted Airport is located in essex in the south east of england. It is located on the mainline to london via the stansted express, and the M11 connects the airport to cambridge, london, and the rest of the UK. Stansted airport is owned by BAA airports group, which ows other aiports in the UK. Stansted is home to low cost budget carriers Ryanair, and Easyjet. Ryanair has flights all over europe, it has over 35 aircraft based here, Easyjet does not have such a large precence, but is one of the largest airlines based there. Stansted airport wants to expand further, but it under fight with the local community, and with rising aircraft charges Ryanair is fighting back with reductions in winter services. Overall my experience is good, but with ryanair and easyjet not allocating seats i tend to go to the gate, and leave the shops behind!

Stansted is my local airport. I can drive it usually in about 40 minutes. It certainly beats going all the way round the M25 to Heathrow airport or Gatwick airport. It is fairly well laid out with a few places to eat and shop in the main area before customs. Queues can be quite long for the security area but they do seem to handle a lot of people very efficiently and politely so well done to the staff for that. There are more shops and eateries airside but not nearly as many as say Gatwick Village which is excellent. Some gates require you to take the automated train to the departure area which adds a few minutes. In all you need to do a lot of walking everywhere. It seems very strung out.

Stanstead Airport is located on the outskirts of London/Essex and is a favourite for many holiday makers who don’t fancy travelling from London Central. With a longstay carpark, it is easy to leave your car and take you and your luggage to the airport via a bus which comes around every 20 minutes. When checking in, the assistants were very rude and I sometimes wonder would it hurt to smile once in a while! However, with millions of people to checkin everyday, I’m guessing their job is mundane! Overall, the experience was good as long as you don’t expect good customer service.

Like many other airports, there just isn’t enough place to queue at checkin. Queues of people are blocking other people’s way. But, it’s not too bad, at least it has a Radisson Sas Hotel right next door. Which makes it convenient for those early flights in the morning with budget airlines.

It is really amazing how Stansted has become one of the larger London airports - this being from two perspectives, firstly its location is not really in London, secondly, the actual “architecture” that is Stansted, which is more like a tin can structure than a true airport.

Accessibility to be fair is not too bad, either Stansted express or one of the coaches - the Stansted express is the faster option but steep in price.

Compared to Heathrow, the security situation in Stansted is not too bad, does take time to get through but nothing near as ridiculous. There are very few shops, stores or eateries in Stansted, the lack of restaurants means I generally opt for grabbing a sandwich or some quick junk food for the time being.

The flight boarding situation however is a farce, maybe not totally down to Stansted, but also down to the budget airlines which use their terminal, but the lack of seating is a real letdown.

small airport i suppose when your used to heathrow
it would be

There’s a pretty good selection of shops here compared to other airports. although still not enough to keep you entertained during a long wait. neither is there a comfortable seating area. food places tend to be standard cafés like costa or pret a manger. theres not even a mcdonalds/bk so if you are hungry you will have to pay a lot. O and they rarely annouce any flights so keep an eye on the boards. the first i heard of my flight to belfast was a final announcement… there is starbucks though…(the reason i was not keeping an eye on the boards was cause i was in a queue here)

alot of you seem to have a problem with this airport but it’s my fave by far !!

This is my first choice of airports , It’s a nice relaxed airport !
Stansted airport is Ryanair’s main base and you can fly to a whole host of destinations.

I hate flying out of Stansted airport.

You may go online and go wow! Cheap flights… cool! Well have fun trying to get there. There are numerous bus services and I have used a few different ones. I like Easy bus from London Victoria because it is a mini bus not a massive coach and you pay only a little more and less if you book online. Many coaches go here from everywhere in the country it seems but my experience has been from Victoria.

Add in the time and cost to get to London Victoria, and the cost of the hour and a half coach to the airport and you start thinking you should have just paid extra to go to a closer airport.

Of course I was lured a few times by “pay taxes only” from ryanair and had a horrible experience every time.

The airport was clean and easily laid out prior to boarding with good signage. There were hundreds of seats EVERYWHERE which when you think about it, preboarding in any airport there are usually minimal seats. They were all filled by pissed off, dirty ryanair customers.

My theme here is ryanair ruins everything at this airport. They have one line for each flight which sounds nice but when a flight opens to board, usually about an hour or so before departure, the lines fill up and you feel stuck in the middle of a scrum trying to move around. I won’t even go in to the horrible service ryanair provides at the check in counter.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Ryanair rant<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Well actually… okay once, the jerks kicked me out of line for not having my reservation number when I never needed it before to check in, then they closed the gate on me! I was the tenth person in line when they opened so I was not late. When I finally got someone to help me, who didn’t even ask for my reservation number and just checked me in, they told me I needed to change my name on my ticket to match my passport. My official married name is in my passport next to my maiden name and I have never had issues in the 6 years I have been married. But, they changed it anyway despite me telling them otherwise and talked to me so condescendingly.. like I was an idiot for using my LEGAL name. My flight was then boarding so I couldn’t argue and said screw it. GRRR.. I wanted to scream.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Ryanair rant<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Security takes forever which is normally not an issue but you often only have about 45-30 minutes to get to your gate. The security personnel seem pissed off and disorganised and have no issues shouting angrily at people.

So after your ridiculously long journey to the airport, the punching, kicking and tripping over other passengers during check in, and the patronizing goobers at security… you are airside. You then have to find your gate which can take 15 minutes to get to if you are young and able bodied with minimal carry on luggage.

You have to take trams and walk long distances to gates, which when you only have 15 minutes to do can be stressful. With Ryanair, you then wait in poorly identified queues to get on the plane… oh wait did I say queues? More like a flash mob. I expected to see a celebrity when I got to the gates but no.. just a surly Ryanair employee..

The shopping and food seems fine here but too bad you cannot enjoy it much. Oh and Ryanair also save money on not using jetways as with I think all the airlines here so you better hope it isn’t raining.

Landing and coming through immigration is also a huge hassle. Every time I land, it seems as though you wait at least an hour to get through, European Union or Non-European passports. It is highly understaffed and not well laid out. At least my immigration officers have all been really nice.

It is no wonder everyone here seems angry and the costs incurred to get here are not worth it AT ALL… If you can use another airport, do it. I give it 2 stars because if there was another non budget airline using it as a hub, it would be slightly better.

Oh my god, I hate Stansted Airport. We came there at 12 pm at night and they did not let us in to the Gates, where you sleep very well until your flight is ready. No, we had to sleep on the cold crowded floor in the hall. And the people there are really too paranoid. The thing with just ONE handpackage…. I’ve never seen something like this.

I am a Stansted victim!

London’s third airport is a bit out on a limb: the M11 makes it convenient from London and Cambridge, but that’s it. The Long Stay car parks are on the opposite side of the runways, so the drive round in the bus takes ages and seems unnecessary long.

Once inside the over-crowded check-in and security experiences were both fairly slow. The shops and other facilities were OK, but nothing special.

Depending on the gate in use you may be taken to your gate by a small underground train: this is reasonably efficient but we were very squashed in and it did feel like I was taking part in a game of Sardines.

Not a particularly good experience, but not a disaster either.

Inconviently located, poorly set out, crappy outlets.
i understand why you locate an airport miles away from everywhere, but you need decent, cheap transport to get there.

I feel that its stuck between big a big airport and small one, and thus doesnt successed at both. Gatwick and heathrow realise that are big airports and thus have lots of stores and things to do while you wait for you flight. while airports like luton and london city, are small and work on effiecency. stansted, sucks on both these things…there is nothing to do, and lines are always long.