BAA London Stansted Reviews

Charged 3 POUNDS for dropping off/ picking up!! legalised robbery!!! Bastards

Worst service ever. Missed my connection flight because I had to queue for more than 1 hour in the passport control. Also security staff is more than lazy (prefer to talk to colleagues instead of doing their job) Had to pay for a new flight because of the bad service!! One star is already too much for that airport

Overcrowded, dirty, delays. Just pay extra and don't use this airport.

This is a terrible airport. Car parking is expensive and poorly organised. Entering the departures lounge forces you to take a long route through duty free and them along a winding path past shops. On arrival you can expect long queues at the border.

Security control relatively fast.

For this you are first led 1km through a shopping mile in which the crowds accumulated. In order to be forced to spend even more time in the shopping area, the departure gate is announced exactly 45 minutes beforehand. In itself no problem - whether you wait at the gate or in the large hall in front doesn't matter in principle. If there weren't too few seats in the large hall. This forces you, like fattening cattle, to live in a confined space with a few thousand other people. As soon as the gate is announced, a "run" begins through the sometimes narrow aisle system of the airport.

Due to Corona the airport is very humid in temperature. But the service is very good. You are in line for security and can clear it within a few minutes. There are no eating stands available due to corona. But there are shops such as WHSmith. Overall a decent airport.

Drop off parking a complete joke. Manchester is FREE

Big airport, long walk to passport control. The check-in process goes smoothly and we were sorted out very quickly.

Normal airport. Quite far from london but flights are cheaper than from gatwick or heathrow

Although security handles the masses of travellers relatively efficient I have to complain about frequent delays on starts. Today we waited 30 minutes in the plane after landing waiting for a stairway car.
Yesterday my Ryanair flight to Stansted was cancelled and I was notified 90 minutes before boarding! Even google knew earlier. Also long way to walk and poor facilities for travelling with babies

Modern building design and polite workers. However: overcrowded - the airport has not been adequately reconfigured for the number of passengers travelling through in 2018. We travelled at times that should not have been the busiest but felt like cattle being herded! Toilets were filthy and there were long queues for all the women's toilets (men went straight in) showing poor allocation of floor space for facilities. On departure had to navigate a maze of narrow corridors through about 200 metres of "duty free" shops, with passengers kettled into small spaces for as long as possible in a nakedly commercial cash shakedown despite already having paid a fortune in "airport taxes": if we had been in a hurry for our flight I would have been absolutely furious! Mid stay car parks have a decent bus service but are organised like a maze: on arrival, most were closed but no indication was given so we had to hunt around. There were no audible flight announcements e.g. for blind people: how are they supposed to cope?

Very nice, regulated and well designed. Yes not the best duty free shop but every thing else is in high standard.

April 2019 I slept peacefully at the airport, nn closes from 0am to 2am

Do yourself a favour fly from any other Uk airport. Everything from the over complicated Long stay Parking to The massive queues at The arrivals hall is an unmitigated disaster.

Everything perfect. Smooth operation, very short waiting times.

Very little seating, nowhere any publicly available charging points

It's historically been a nightmare to get through security with staff typically rude to foreign-speakers. I have seen people been treated with dislike as if they were terrorists.
It really feels like the purpose of this is to sell as much as possible in the shops after the security checks. It takes a minimum of 30 mins to get to the gate. Profit is well prioritised over the passenger's need to quickly get a hassle-free flight.
The experience gets even worse when you deal with Ryanair staff...
Stansted has made improvements lately though.

2 staff at the passport counter that is all... took us 2 and a half hours to get out!!!

Good option for low-cost European flights. Public transport options are okay with trains from Birmingham, Leicester, Central London & Norwich. Parking gets VERY full in peak times.

Not the best option for visiting London as it's miles away from the city. However, if you don't mind the longer travel then it's fine.

Easy to navigate and it has all the facilities you need.

Thanks to Jackie Hogan for all her help but the other genius Demos Zachanedes and his colleague who refused to give me his name need to be sent on a customer training course. Karl Styles

Low cost airport for low-cost travellers.
The airport is quite far away, when going by bus from the Victoria Station. The Stansted Express takes 45 minutes from the Liverpool Street Station, but return ticket (30 GBP) is expensive.

The airport lounges are small, badly overcrowded, with limited numbers of shops and restaurants.

Avoid traveling through this airport!
Most unprofessional staff from check in to security, it s just a very poor service..

Securiyy love to play tough and harass passanger rights based on ignorance and craving for dominance...Flew from Switzerland with my inlinescater which were packed with tiny Allen wrench no problem but at Stansted they knew better... I had the supervisor called to explain to me what is the danger of a dull Allen key so tiny that one can barrely hold and is suited only for inline scater wheels... the answer was no instruments are allowed on board. As stupid as it may sound as it is clear that this is not the way to catch or privent terrorist from taking apart an aircraft in middair... it is only the way to harass travelers based solely on untouchability and unaccountability... However stupid those people are and however groundless their decision making might be they have become Gods... And by the way instruments are allowed on board as long they are shorter than 7 inches... Do not harass our staff. What about do not harass our rights!!!

Drama, check-in lines, chaos and organizational mess. Radom is also JFK

Inhumane conditions, not nearly enough room for the people who are waiting to get past the gates. Only way to pass time is to sit on the freezing floors because they can not provide enough seating.

Delays Delays Delays, this Airport has a 100% success rate at Flight delays whenever I use it.

Contrary to many of the reviews here, I actually quite enjoy this airport and it s one of my favourites to fly out of and into. Service is practically non-existent but I feel like that s quite a frivolous concern while travelling. It s out of the way (it s not really in London despite the name) but I am consistently able to get through security and immigration quickly.

My only real complaints are the lack of outlets to charge electronics and the lack of restaurants to eat at, but overall I would much rather use the thirty minutes I save going through security/immigration to eat at a nice cafe in London or for some zz.

The average number of hours in the past few months is one and a half hours. In the middle of the night, there is still a long queue. The worst airport in Europe is undoubtedly

Bag checking area runs smoothly, its crowded but that's to be expected

Very far from London but a nice airport and you will find your way around!

Stansted deserves the lowest rate allowing services like 'Moneycorp' currency exchange to operate and rob people on their premises.

I think it's unacceptable that a UK airport with so many travellers everyday and so many people spending time here for connections they provide such a SHITTY wifi. Impossible to work with it!!!! I will think twice next time before buying a long connection in Stansted!

Seriously worst airport ever - too crowded, no place to sit - like a cattle call

Some Nazi-grade authoritarians in the lower ranks of security queue management here. One guy in particular deserves mention easily identified by the graphic tattoo on his arm spelling Royal Navy West Indies. Just before I joined security queue #20, I changed my mind in favor of #22, which was open and shorter. Skipping over, however, was sufficient to merit his attention from a hundred meters away. He directed me back and suggested he wouldn t hesitate to call the police on me. They would be happy to hold me for an hour and half, in his opinion, because as a brown man, I looked suspicious anyway.

I appreciate there are rules around security, and some queues are reserved for special use, but this situation was none of those. The guard s behavior was straight out of the Stanford Prison Experiment!. I should carry copies of that work to give away whenever I fly Stansted.

Delay after delay, with no staff around! Never again!

Suck this airport. After 23.00 until the morning, 2/3 of the hall will be closed and people will have to sit on the cold tiled floor in the remaining third. I've never seen anything like that. Best avoided.

Well-organized clear easy to navigate despite its size

Transportation to and from the airport is a mess. It is worth giving more than the ticket to travel as a human being.

Today, April 25 2019 at 0705h I walked through security with my daughter. We went through lane/load 6. One of the officiating members of staff expressed aggressive, abrasive and overall negative customer service. The staff member failed to express herself in a courteous manner when officiating along the area where you put your belongings in the bins provided for scanning on the belt. I do not dispute her carrying out her duties but the manner in which she did this was abrupt and rude. When my daughter sought to check her lanyard for her name she bluntly turned her details away from sight and stated this information is not for public scrutiny. I am sure the staff member would like respect and if not I suggest a change of role within the airport. I will not seek to describe the staff member in this format as I do not think it correct however I do suggest the staff member gets refresher training on how to interact with the public to better represent Stansted Security. A staff member like her must not be customer facing until adequate customer service training is gained.

Spent longer in queuing in passport control than flying, it s not even a busy time of day it s 1am. Hopefully I ll never have to come here again.
Impressively understaffed.

Getting from bad to worse. Anything, from gate-distance to baggage reclaim and train departures makes for a very bad experience. Never again!

Stansted is the absolute pits. Check in/Luggage Drop is dekplorably slow in my experience. Even if you only have hand luggage, security is also abysmally slow. Staff look disinterested and spend more time yapping to each other than they do shifting the incessant queues. The food and drink outlets are always rammed, so forget the idea of a couple of pleasant, peaceful drinks before you actually fly. The public address system is virtually impossible to hear. Gate announcements are left to the absolute last minute which leads to panicking stampede like large movements of bodies towards gates instead of orderly procession in good time. Part of the problem, well probably the main source of the problem, is the fact that Stansted is now Ryanair's main UK hub. It obviously gets a mega cheap deal from Stansted which is now utterly dependant on Ryanair for its miserable existence. Ryanair has a long track record of treating its customers with contempt and disdain. That is now rubbing off on the airport itself which, in turn, is simply saying 'If you don't like it, tough'. Stansted + Ryanair = Rotten Service. Is it worth all the hassle? Definitely NOT. After Ryanair revises it's cabin bag policy - AGAIN - on 1st November, 2018, to our detriment - AGAIN - I have resolved to stop using them. That, in turn, should mean me making much less use of Stansted which will be very welcome. Avoid!!

The first thing I would sy about Stansted is how typically modern day British it is. Most Britons will tell you, that in England, if you own or use a car it is a license for some bully to pick your pocket. Stansted is no different. Virtually all private motorists are charged to pick up or even drop off passengers.



It should be noted that Stansted was built with public money and is served by roads that were also paid for by the public, and somehow these robber barons who own the airport are allows to extract tolls from people who are bringing customers to them.

Then of course there is the "Parking" which somebody else has described as "Highway Robbery". It is worth noting that the Parking is contracted out to the highest bidder. This means that you could be the person who collects all that money! All you have to do is win the tender process and then you have the right to charge whatever you like to get back the over-inflated sum you have paid for this right. It really is about time the Office for Fair Trading examined this scam.

Of course they are not alone in colluding with the Parking Companies in robbing the pulbic. I once calculated that the square foot rates for parking a car at Heathrow were higher than the rent of a Mayfair apartment, and in spite of the Mayfair + rents, if your car is robbed/vandalised while it is paying these rates, there is the typical disclaimer that you park at your own risk.



I've just looked at the other reviews since posting this. It would appear that there is a mathematical equation to describe this contempt for customers: Ryanair+Manchester Airport Group= Perfect Storm.

The worst airport I ve ever been to. The absurdly long security lines will take you ages to get through. On the arrivals side of the airport there s barely any seating. You ll see people sitting on the floor and railings. On the departures side they ve put an impossibly long chain of stores to slow down your trek to your gate even further. Missed my first flight ever trying to get through this airport. Shelled out 100 pounds just to be on a flight to another city in the same country. Added about 8 hours to my travel. Missed several meetings. Lost a day s income as well. Complete disgrace for the UK. Use this place as a case study of what not to do.

What happened to you, Stansted Airport? Why not enough seating places? Why staff are rude and ask to seat up if I seat on the floor?

Gorgeous ... organized ... I came two hours before and I climbed the last on the plane ..... more organization is new romsrom at our home ... as we are ...

Large airport, transparent information system, many shops, prices in flight, I don't fly so much for me too Far from the city but the access is great I recommend

Incredibly rude staff at the passport gates, and everything Ryanair... what a horrible airline!!!

What the hell has happened to this place used to be ok now it seems to be a shopping mall with some aircraft attached.
Overcrowded, Understaffed, generally a bad experience avoid if you can

Flight from Edinburgh to Stn was estimated 1h 15min but it took a total of 3h. Flight arrived on time as expected, but there wasn't any parking space for the plane I was in. We waiting for 2 hours total and then we stared moving to a vacant parking space. Once we stopped we had to wait another additional 15min because the staff can't find a ladder to get us off. Customer service is atrocious and it will most likely happen very soon. Really disappointed.

At the baggage check I took a 0.5 l bottle of alcohol that I had purchased on the previous keflavic flight from Duty free, saying that I was not allowed more than 0.1l. And they added that the previous flight was through Luton I wouldn't have to drink from one airport to another.
Saying more questions and not agreeing with the words of Mr told me that if I want to go back Sami estimate the price of alcohol and salt I pay the adder and only in this case I can go take with me ... but since then he was still happy and happy. no more licking on his lips than at the beginning of the discussion. All this after the flight was delayed for the next day the hotel was not given to me and the next day there was an hour delay for the previously set time ...

Very, very unfriendly place and staff. Thank you Lisa for your "help". Never again!!!

This airport reminds me of some very rural outpost, certainly not an international greeting for travellers. Poor signage, forever building, low class facilities. Hope it's not what to expect of the country

Landed tonight at Stansted airport at 7.20pm and had to wait 1 hour for my luggage to arrive at baggage reclaim.
Even though my plane was only 300 yards away.
Not good at all and no one answering the phone when we tried to find out where our luggage was.

Pathetic for information. So their train transit has broken down...... didn't start this morning at 4am.....But there are no announcements to inform passengers or signs. Took 40mins of queuing to get on a bus for a 5min journey to our gate. Everyone worried they will miss their flight. I ask an airport official and they tell me its down to the airline to inform passengers! REALLY! 20 airlines giving the same message or one airport giving the same message to all passengers. Such stupidity! And how about reassurance for passengers not to worry? E.g. airlines are aware!!

We have been changed to 3 different gates 5 minutes before the flight departs ... shameful

Having met friends and relatives a number of times this year I am appalled at the facilities at the domestic arrivals point. It strikes me that this facility was an afterthought !
Did the management forget that planes arrive as well as depart? I feel that someone whispered in the ear of management who then decided to add an extra couple of metres at the far end of the terminal ! Couple this with the distance to the car park and the cost of same ..... an absolute disgrace !

Why is it that we come from Heathrow where they know that for a good amount of people they need space and come to stansted to find everyone cramped into a small space?

Not to mention that the rest of the airport is empty and being blocked off by staff who also patrol the populated area ensuring that your not aloud to lie down and try and catch some shut eye. I wonder if the top of the food chain would like this treatment?

I would happily volunteer myself to make sure they are not allowed to lie down and sleep when they are nackered and have been travelling for hours already after a days work.

I would love to say this is the first time this has happened but no. It is exactly the same as last year, no improvement has been made in this sham of a lobby area they set up.

This is a budget airport that suggest getting there from 5.30 get a nearby hotel that costs an unreasonable amount and provides minimal public transport for the times they suggest on the website. I'm fairly sure a batch of sea monkeys could run an airport better than Stansted does don't waste your money here this airport is less than a joke it does not even deserve the grace of a one star review!

Its kinda nice airport but its very far from london so you need to take a bus or a train to go to london

The departure lounge is specifically designed to be an unpleasant place to be, so that you spend money in a restaurant or coffee shop... really disappointing

The whole airport is full of fraudulent ATMs! You calculate outrageous fees through confusing menu navigation!
Don't draw money there!

Far too far and with limited transportation options to London.
The security queue is soooo big. Get ready!

Access from the north of England very difficult, A-1 long, complicated detours, and road works

The worst airport I've been to. I fly several times a year and only at this airport I always have troubles related to luggage. For the first time when I was at this airport, the service almost destroyed everything from the bag, because apparently something showed them, it turned out that nothing was as I said but everything had to be fired .. The second time I arrived, the flight delayed, at a similar time landed several planes. About 1 am I was standing over an hour of queuing time to check documents. Returning again to this airport, my luggage went to the control because something was wrong, all the clothes fired 10 times everything checked until I finally had to let go because they found nothing ... I fly with one bag at different airports and nowhere was such a problem, even in Israel, where it seemed to me that the control will be very severe ... It is a waste of time and nerves. Plus for a large gastronimic part.

Cheap, fast and pleasant. Great connections, by plane and by bus.

The airport is not worth a star. The staff in the shops are very rude and dismissive in the evening. In addition, the check-in area of the airport is closed from 11 o'clock in the evening until 3 o'clock in the morning. That means that about 80% of the airport is not usable. Waiting at the airport overnight should therefore be avoided. If you try to find a bit of sleep somewhere on the floor you will immediately be awakened by the police and it will be forbidden. Seat opportunities are unfortunately too few available.

Someone needs to explain why, when coming off a flight at midnight all families with children are siphoned off to the longest queue for border control. Other lines very short if any at all. Being an airport, people are afraid to say anything in the queue but all muttering echo this review. On behalf of lots of angry families!

As usual, quick and easy. The car parks and the drop off are a bit overpriced.

One of the worst experience i had in European international airport.
So understaff you can barely find someone if any help is needed, and available staff is so unhelpful.
Deficient signs and instructions, for Stansted first time passengers; can easily lost. Crowded place.

For someone with special need; he will face a real difficultly.

However it is obviously designated to low cost air flights, but i think even easy jet passengers deserve better than this.

By far the worst airport I ve ever been to. Incomprehensible that no improvements has been made over the years despite the abundance of horrific reviews. If anything they ve gotten worse and worse. Every bad review here about them is true and today the security was just another example of that. Several of the security belts were simply closed even though people were queuing for at least 45 min and whenever anyone asked if they had time to make their flight the staff would answer with Maybe, possibly , no sense of empathy or respect. People were also told things like well this is why you should show up three hours before the flight which is ridiculous because at a certain point there needs to be some accountability there from their side AND even when you are there more than three hours before their flight, like I was today, I STILL only just got to my gate 5 min before closing, and it s not like I walked slow or spent time doing anything else than get there. Absolutely appalling.

Had to fly from Fuerteventura here with Ryanair because our airline Germania went bankrupt! Luckily we had only 3 hours stay until we flew on, I could hardly have kept it longer here! Unfriendly security wherever you look! So many people who were rushed like livestock through infinite and cursory corridors until they come to a close before collapsing in a totally dirty Ryanair machine! And just have money with you, otherwise you get the B-commodity !!

Chaos airport and Ryanair hald also makes no better

Modern and very well equipped airport, with many services and shops. Really nice.
CAUTION: allow enough time to take your plane. 1h30 is a minimum which, in most cases, will not be sufficient for baggage checks, the obligatory crossing of the long shopping mall and the final journey to the boarding gate on foot or by metro depending on the destination.

Two and a half hours early and I almost spat the lungs (literally) to get to the gate for the broken headphone. To the Security Control the / chaos / and them that, "Eh well, by now you have lost it!". Mmh-mh, of course. Okay.