BAA London Stansted Reviews

Takes ages to get through, as narrow gap to channel you past all shops, allow an extra 30 mins

Just awful! The terminal is apparently not designed as an airport but as a shopping center. After the somewhat overcrowded security check, it goes in snake lines! and detours through perfumery and other shops to the plane. Arrived at Heathrow and flown to Stansted, no comparison! Too narrow paths and loud music from every 2nd store. Not recommendable!

absolutely terrible airport...fist if all whether you are departing or arriving everything you see around is prefabricated. Like everything is temporary but everything is tyere next time you go there...
The arrivals is more of a dungeon where you have to go through every bloody shop that has business there. I don't mind doing some shopping but when its shoved down your throat it s not nice.

Be prepared to walk at least a mile or two to get anywhere you want. It s not like any other proper or any other airport at all. Whole concept is making the passenger walk . Up the stairs, down the escalator, up the ramp, down the corridor...keep walking.



Absolute disgrace of an airport...makes me wish i lived closer to a decent airport or mainland europe where i wouldn't need this cr.p at all

Why there are not extra seats at the airport. 6h I was sitting on the floor, and with me another 40 people.

Of the worst experiences I've had in an airport. Rude staff, queues everywhere ... And insufficient staff that caused our flight to be delayed. Never more.

This airport is very unorganised. I travelled from here through Thomas Cook. The airport was very chlostrophobic and small. The queue for check-in was very long. Af the check-in desk, the woman had a long moan stating that we should of checked in before. However, it clearly stated on Thomas Cooks website that there is no online check-in. Then for the seating arrangements, she segregated all of my family of 4 far apart in the plane.

The luggage at the back of the check in desks was very badly handled.

There was a delay for our flight and they told everyone that the aeroplane wasn't fueled. They had to bring a plane from Glasgow.

On our way back, the woman again at Corfu airport was very rude. She again separated us all far apart in the plane.

The baggage took long on the conveyer belt back I'm stansted. It took almost an hour



Very dissapointed and would never travel from here again.

This is the worst airport ive ever been to in my life. The wifi conveniently doesnt work properly when you need to check in, leading to VERY hefty airport charges! Secondly, the automatic gates only let half our party through, and there were massive ques where they were doing the same thing to other people. Whilst we waited well out of the way for the rest of our party (we could not communicate with them as their phones dont work in the UK), some utter imbecile came and forced us to move even after i explained the situation with him. Utterly stupid and the cause of such needless stress of being split apart in a busy airport, this guy instantly ruined my journey.

Many bad reviews but I never had a problem in Stansted Airport. Its big enough and London links are easy. Security is always quick and organised. They only issue for me is no shortcut for shopping mall and long distances to some gates but I can live with that.

Filthy,packed and absolutely impossible if you re traveling alone with a small child in a pram.Stairs all the way down to the plane on gate 36.
Very slow security.We were there 2 hours before departure and barely made our flight.
One to avoid if you can!!!

visited post lock-down, still a lot of restaurant closed and seating place easy to find. very strange. not a lot of social distancing inside the waiting room

I left a duty free bag on the transfer bus from the terminal to the mid stay and set down car park, I got dropped off at J12 at around 4.30pm, I got off realized my mistake and tried to flag the bus down to retrieve my bag but he drove off in haste. There was another bus sat there, and the driver instead of radioing the bus ahead to let them know I left a bag, told me to call the help point, who radioed the bus asking the drivers to check, 10 mins later the help point said that all the buses had been checked and nothing found, I asked if I could leave my details in case it turned up, they said no, I called airport lost and found and they also refused to take my details, all in all, there was very little assistance offered, do not recommend.

Wprst airport in the world. No communication at all on any level

Extremely narrow, unclear check-in area, which corresponds to the high passenger volume in any way. Hardly any service staff available, so that at check in the sheer chaos prevails. This is already an hour over. After the security clearance We kept the aisles extremely narrow and there are hardly any chairs, toilets, changing rooms, etc. One has the feeling that intentionally every comfort is prevented

Quick security check in the crowd despite the quick turn of people in a cultured environment, clear signs, shops like any airport. The distances are great, you should check the gate number so you don't have to go back.

Worst Airport in the world. This afternoon my disabled mother had to wait for over an hour for a pre booked wheelchair when she got off the flight today. Very stressful for her and a depressing end to her family holiday. Contrast that to the service she got departing Mallorca airport. That was great customer experience.

It s only time the airport stops providing plastic bags... I think we can all bring our own plastic bags to put our toiletries in. We cannot afford neither wasting more unnecessary resources nor polluting more by making use of these plastic bags which will most likely end up in landfills... let s take care of the world, by doing it we are also taking care of ourselves and our loved ones.

Too few sockets to charge your mobile phone - very far from the standings of other European airports

E un posto immerso nel verde. Meraviglioso e pulitissimo....e spero di ritornare

quick service and easy link to London through train and coach

Do yourself a favour and fly from or to any airport but Stansted. Horrible staff and will rip you off every way they can.

Awesome airport, very big queues after passport control landing, no passport control at all? There are large queues on the security check. Not enough seating for waiting. The gates are very far (about 15 minutes after security) and the road is one - through all the shops in the duty free zone. Make sure you are there for at least two hours before departure, I lost my flight due to airport improvements.

Very very expensive not well signposting in the airport will try not to use again

Last 4 times the metal detector stopped me and 4 times there was nothing wrong with me or with the others, in my same situation, before me. Beside the stupid answer of the attendant, "What do you except? You are at the airport", I think that a security tool that stops randomly, rather then if there is something wrong with the passenger, does not make people safe but understand that security at airport it is a joke.

awful , just awful .. The security staff treat you like the enemy . It is horrible . Avoid if you can

Not a bad airport. Was through check in and security in about 20 minutes.

Quite a bit of shopping if that's your thing. Not really mine so just wizzed through that. A few restaurants past the shopping section.

Mini trams to the far away gates. Pretty efficient.

Embarrassing airport, incredibly inefficient and truly super cheap. I have to remember not to book here regardless what saving might be

Quite easy to get around. They are very thorough in security.

In general I think that it is badly organized, the signage and the organization by the staff during my stay was really chaotic, I suppose that the schedules and the flow of travelers will greatly influence this aspect. In my opinion, the worst thing was to be waiting for excessive time in the queue to get on the plane and after an hour I was serviced and almost lost my plane. I had to run with two bags without stopping for about 10 min on all sides together with another group of passengers, all a little crazy.

Piston, crush, rather weak organization for such a small airport. Finding the bus station as you are for the first time also takes some time, because it is poor with signs.

Long waiting times when entering the country, dirty toilets, endless queues with the women. There is no order during the security check, no sensible management of the masses. At least the staff were friendly. On the other hand, one is literally driven through the shopping mall and can barely avoid consumption. Loudspeaker announcements can hardly be understood, if at all.

I was asked to leave the terminal building because I had my dog with me. I checked all the doors and there was no signs saying "No Dogs Allowed" apart from one hidden away at the International Departures door. I frequently take my dog to other London airports with no issues apart from here. Parking machines in car parks don't take new pound coins and no signs to say you can pay by card at the exit, took a person to tell me you could. I prefer Heathrow to this dump even if it means having to drive down Euston Rd to get there!

Airport is quite far from The city of London. I have to say the thing that needs to be improved drastically is at the security check. Super Iper slow!. Last time not only staff was working so slow I even got asked to do their job by stacking the trays. POOR SERVICE. Must be improved!.

Ban against sleeping. Security staff are aggressive to sleepers. A miserable experience.

One of the worst low-cost airports I have been to. It looks more like a mall. Does it seem normal that to reach the gates you have to travel the entire commercial area, perhaps coming to know your gate 15 minutes before boarding closes with the risk of losing your flight?
An airport must be functional to the passengers, not to the shops inside.
Staff not friendly. Never again.

The airport was surprisingly quiet - early Saturday morning journey. The short stay car park was half empty. There s automated self scan check in for luggage - but there s someone helping so not to difficult, although it does involve queuing & waiting ( I would allow extra time at busy times). The checks were very quick - I did have a fast track. The airport is going through repairs, it has changed a lot since I came last time. There are a lot of new shops and I especially liked a lot of fresh breakfastie types of food. The gate was announced on time, we had enough time to get to the gate. Flight was on time. All went well.

Nowhere to sit pre security forcing people to sit on the floor, WiFi does not work, lack of communication during flight delays and cancellations

Great airport, has a very large security check area. Very busy but effective. Well served by different train services so easy to commute to and fro London and beyond. Lots of shops and eateries like the body shop, fat face, rituals, swarovsky, pret a manger, Hugo boss, lacoste, Joe and the juice, accessorize, hema, James Martin kitchen, giraffe, Starbucks, cabin bar, coast to coast, Ted baker, glorious britain, burger king, next, whsmith, Dixon's travel, JD, Boots, etc. Very wheelchair friendly and multiple toilet units.

What a mess. We found one socket to try an charge our phones (with all the flight tickets on them) and it's by the damn toilet. One sitting area is closed off for renovation so everyone is scattered around sitting on the floor, but don't try to make yourself more comfortable - security picks everyone up cause of strict "no sleeping" policy. Our flight is in four hours but I can't imagine spending another hour in here at this point. This doesn't make your airport look better, everyone in here, us included, looks like a bunch of hobos cause you can't even provide us with seats. The least you could do is let us sleep.

Queuing on the Ryanair stand was bad but the terminal was large. Security was all fine, some nice men there although I still felt safe. The duty free is large but the the waiting area can be cramped at busy times shops decent too but I feel there should be more restaurants in there, more fast food. When we came back border control had a big queue that went down very quickly and the wait for baggage was not very long. This is a nice and clean airport I think.5 stars allround.

I actually found my departure and arrival experience relatively smooth here, as a single young person traveling. The security was swift going out and I didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes to get through passport control coming back. There is also a reasonable selection of shops and restaurants, including a Weatherspoon pub close to the departure gates (handy so you can spend more time in the pub!).

I'd recommend using the airport mid stay car parking services too, as I did and found it to be far more effective and economical than taking and paying for public transport or a taxi. Wouldn't mind traveling here again so long as I can get a budget flight as STN is not my local airport.

This must be one of the worst airports, it does not deserve to have nor qualify for having the word 'London' in its title. I had the misfortune of flying from this excuse of an airport during the summer holidays. The baggage handlers failed to load half of the passengers' luggage on to the flight. The boarding staff were clueless as to how to board a plane. And, don't even get me started on the excuse of a lounge...

No human coming to the passenger. Constantly pushed. Few places where you can charge your phone

Flight on Monday morning to Bremen with Ryanair

Airport was relatively full, but the handling was relatively fast. After the baggage and bag control (all very professional) you walk through a 'shopping arcade', where everyone really finds everything. It is also possible to enjoy an English breakfast right before departure, the prices are within reasonable limits. Many drink only a trifle, so as not to be in motion. Very large crowds were on Monday morning at the airport.
If the switch is known, I recommend to be there quickly, even with reserved boarding, because the space for the queue is short. This Dazubuchung with preferred boarding has actually brought nothing, because five minutes later everyone sat in his seat on the plane and the seats were previously known without Dazubuchung. Narrow aisles on the plane, lots of advertising and getting out takes a few minutes longer.
The staff were all nice and helpful.

The advantages were the direct flight (time saving) and the unbeatable price.

Tips
be there early enough
Weigh the luggage in advance
- no metal objects or liquids> 100ml in the hand luggage
with Ryanair
* Add someone to the online reservation to check (cost error)
* Print your boarding pass beforehand
* Check in online
* in the hand luggage was not looked at size and weight
(There are various rumors circulating about Ryanair on the internet, so I was also concerned about traveling with this airline, so taking the tips from me and others from the internet into consideration, nothing can go wrong.)

So much traffic getting into the drop off point. Carnage inside with far too many people for its size. Queues everywhere and no information provided about our delay, just 3 unhelpful Ryanair staff hiding around the corner so they don t have to talk to customers!

No where to get anything decent to eat only fast food and sandwiches before departure gates open closed the only decent restaurant

We arrived with more than enough time. Basically it took us more than an hour to get through the security line. When we finally got there the security staff were utterly slow. We beeped in the machine and took forever to get our belongings checked. Aparently there was something funny in one of the backpacks as we saw one of the staff laughing and joking around and it looked like he didn't know what to do and he acted randomly. We missed our flight and this costs us 200 pounds. I get these days the airports need more security but it seems obvious than for some of the staff it isn't. Such a ver disapointed expirience. We went on vacation with a very slow budget, just to enjoy the city and it ended up expensive and with a bad experience.

On departure our flight was delayed. We were made to wait at the gate for 2 hours in sweltering heat. No air conditioning, servere lack of information and filthy toilets. And then on arrival we waited an hour and a half for our luggage. Complete chaos! Avoid this airport it's rubbish!

Possibly the worst airport in (around) London. Caters for the low cost carriers mainly but over charges for everything like parking. Trolleys are hard to find, then need a quid to release and even harder to find a place to return them to get your quid back in which time the parking system has fined you. To get on a the plane you have to zig zag unnecessarily through the over priced 'so called' duty free.

Always choose a better airport like Gatwick or Heathrow if you have a choice.

Easy peasy. Dropped off the bags this afternoon. Just proceed through security in the morning. Staying in the Radisson blu and took advantage of the 14 day parking.

Scandalous airport!
Incompetent security personnel. We need to fire them all and rehire new people who want to work
Spend their time chatting and are in no rush to check suitcases
They wait for you to miss your flight
Run away from Ryanair!
Never again this company

Worst airport I've had the displeasure of flying through. No where to charge your phone/device, no where to sit other than the single burger king, and no one is allowed to lay down. Awful airport

Worst airport I've ever been. Avoid if you can.
Drop off rates are extortionate. 50GBP if you stop more that 10min. Be careful they don't care if your pregnant wife had to go to the toilet urgently, they will charge that even if you go over just 4 minutes. Yes you read it well 50GBP for 14min parking.

Probably my least favourite airport to fly from. Giant, disorganised mess and received absolutely zero help or sympathy trying to get a baby in a buggy and a hand luggage case down a broken escalator on my own. Had to rely on some very nice passengers who lended a hand!

Overall acceptable for budget airlines.

Pros: As Ryanair's main hub, they make an effort to ensure on-time departures and arrivals.

Departure experience is generally ok - security times are usually acceptable although staff members are not helpful. Seating is limited due to excessive surface dedicated to shops.

Cons: arrivals experience is poor, long walks and massive border queues. Transport to and from London is bad, except by car (the Stansted express is a slow, shockingly overpriced and constantly delayed commuter train stopping at 5 stations and running at an average speed of 40km/h)

London Stansted is a good airport. There's a lot of markets after the security check. It's easy to reach by train or also coaches.

London Pampa Airport. Sorry, nothing to do with London is 70km outside. The first problem is that drive in England x railway companies, so you lose the overview quickly. Then London and back costs good 40 times. If you want to go early in the morning, the train station is too close, or it drives nothing.

The security is completely overwhelmed, the one here is nothing stolen is pure luck. Because you lose your things quickly out of the eye.

One is driven by a 500m long sales street, before one is at the gates, which one reaches then only by train. Disgusting.

What happened today with the fire at Stansted Airport is proof of Stansteds awful health & safety, poor communication and lack of care of service! Waiting like packed ants while waiting for unhelpful management to give an update- 5 hours of no response until confirmation all flights were cancelled! Should be ashamed of how badly managed today was.

Rayanair flight FR1832 for naples at 6.30 ....... really rough staff this morning at the check in boarding pass, I don't know how these types of people work as ground staff.

Like the airport. Lots of cozy cafes and restaurants. Nice environment and good service

Fine airport ... but too far from center of the city

Every time I go it's worse ... it doesn't seem to be UK. Bad organization in access controls, crowded pardons and endless queues. Only 4 checkpoints were open, about to lose the plane.
That if the shopping area well organized and luxurious, the part of the control was the hunger games.

Immense airport where you will have to spend much more time than expected both at the start and at the finish. Landed from Italy if you have a biometric passport you are a favorite and you will have access to faster controls in a kind of star treck cylinder. To go to the city you can take the train (which is the safest solution in terms of time, exempt from traffic) or the bus. There are various companies. If you want to book in advance to calculate at least an hour for the controls (and to get to where you start), ditto for the return .. You can catch the bus at the last minute, that of the company that the first part (in this case nothing discounts ). My preferred solution is Stratford: direct connection to the metro (although in zone 3), time to go a bit 'of time before departure immense westfield mall, downtown traffic is avoided. The waiting room chairs are very uncomfortable. Large bathrooms (say there is also a shower). Numerous refreshment centers. (for a great meal deal the boot combinations). Very picky controls. The transparent sachet is indispensable. The worst thing about coming back is that they announce the gate just before.

One of the worst airports I have been to in recent years. Massively overcrowded both landslide and even worse airside. A disaster waiting to happen if there is a security incident which would lead to mass hysteria in my view. Getting from security (which in my view was the ONLY efficient part of this airport) to the Escape lounge through the very overcrowded commercial area was a nightmare. The infrastructure is massively overloaded in my view, and I will never ever return. AVOID at all costs. Heathrow and Gatwick can also be busy, but at least it s organized chaos!

Quite impressive - the toilets boast running water and the departure hall features several seats.

That's the best Stansted has to offer.

Scary crowds here forever. There are many restaurants and shops in the arrivals hall. Parking is poor, you have to jump.

Domestic flight into and out of Stansted, easy professional experience without a single difficulty. Staff were helpful and friendly, and the atmosphere great, no difficulties in travel thank you.

It is indeed a nightmare I should have read the reviews on Google

Used by me frequency at all sort of days & times. And I m not impressed; would avoid this airport if I had the choice.

It gets busy very quickly. Long queues with many security machines closed. And the ones that were open are old, so laptop and fluids still need to come out.
I think I've once departed on-time from here.
And guys....don't set a gate to 'boarding' when there's not even an aircraft yet. It looks very unprofessional.

Good things:
Easy to get to and from via train.
It has some nice shops

no smoking area, long queque times, unfriendly workers, would recomend use any different airport

Not bad. Bring the passport and updated ID. For the return I recommend to be with some time, since there was a lot of queue and they were somewhat slow to let us pass. Although we went to the airport with some time we almost lost the plane.

Everything is ok. It is a pity that sometimes there are no sockets to load phones

An airport not very big but not too small. I had no problems. There were no queues or delays at all.

A bit chaotic, well connected by train. The staff as a rule is friendly but there are exceptions.

Never write reviews but...
Horrible airport not set up to cater or provide space for people passing through especially in the early morning

Security takes time during peak hours - morning time. Pls plan to be there at least 90 minutes before departure

Disgusting rip off car parking prices
Why don t they charge the same price as a normal high street town car park
The government should legislate against them and set a max charge
They are also the most expensive airport to drop off and pick up at

Shame on them .......

How can they morally justify that short of price
It s criminal exactly what do I get for that price
Wet if it s raining
When well it stop ....

I've used Stansted quite a bit in the past and normally it works well for backpackers, though it's true you have to brace yourself for queues to everything. However, I urge anyone to reconsider booking late flights during the week into More

Always some hassle, parking disorganised. Nothing is clear!

Very limited number of men's toilet, I would advise to increase the toilet facilities.