Very organised airport, both for departures and arrivals. The lounge area is newly refurbished with plenty of shops and restaurants. And security check is super fast even in rush hour. From Stratford I can be there in 45 minutes by bus. The train station is just under the airport and link Liverpool St. in 45 minutes as well. Recommended.
ridiculous parking fees if you're dropping off or picking up someone
The worse airport in London, avoid at all costs. A big messy short stay car park always full of cars, obnoxious staff and if you pay for the parking in advance even if you leave within the 30 mins you paid for you need to pay again if you take more than 10 mins to reach the barrier after the time you have paid. They are money hunters, abusive prices for everything and give you nothing.
as of Feb 2020 sleeping at night appears to be allowed in the main entrance/exit area of the airport
I arrived at 11 in the evening and the next plane at 6 in the morning. There are practically no sitting places, people huddle on the floor, against walls, borders. You can charge the phone in a couple of places, and then, for good luck, because my cable did not fit (USB), the terminal opens at 3am before it s fun to freeze your ass on the floor in the UK. ;)
No charging points, they do not let you enter into departure session after 12 to 3.00AM. No proper place to sit and relax, cash withdrawls ATM's do not use those, give you pound at very high rates, rather use ones in city for better exchange rates.
Wow what a mess in here... Firstly bloody 25 wait for toilet staff not helpful at all. Very disappointing experience in Standsted.
Appalling attitude from security and border staff. Rude, arrogant and patronising from the beginning without any provocation. Airport itself is horribly organised. Will never fly from Stansted airport again. Definitely one of the worst airports in the UK. Avoid at all costs.
Can have looooooooong lines at passport control (40 + waiting time),fast track is available (not for free!)
Free WiFi up to 4 hrs.
Lots of stores available for shopping and dining.
There are busses and trains running almost 24/7 to and from London.
Generally ok
With its 50 minutes by train from the city center this airport is not really comfortable ...
Duty free area with few shops.
Very good airport maintained with a competent staff. There may be some waiting for security as a lot of people transit through here, this is one of Ryanair's basics. Logic. Easy access by train with the express stansted or by bus with the national express company with attractive prices, airport "legible" impossible to get lost except perhaps if one lacks intelligence. I will stay there again.
We've been to many airports around the world. Despite living in England this is the first time we flew from Stanstead Airport. On arriving at the security gate it was very busy. However, the security staff were very efficient and the queue soon reduced. Not only were they efficient but professional and pleasant to. The theme of pleasant staff continued throughout the airport. I hope we have the pleasure to fly from this airport again.
Best Airport in London
many Parking space ! Always on time ! Wonderful staff very friendly professional always helpful! Many shop with best price ! Very secure airport! Highly recommend Airport staff was well-trained and very polite
Worst special assistance I ve ever received.
40 minutes to disembark, when the so called special assistance member of staff finished her sandwich she came out her office pointed through a door and said passport control is that way.
Terrible security... huge lines, and security staff standing around doing nothing whilst 1 or 2 others do all the work. Needs new management.
They renovated the whole place, but decided to leave way less room to people and a lot more to the shops. Just can t tolerate that kind of torture when peole don t have space to be and have to stay in shops and restaurants.
There is very flights coming in or going out. You may want to check, if you are expecting a flight or you could waste your time and parking fees etc.
Good luck.
WHY Ripping off drivers for pickup and dropping of , discoution !!!!
Uk boarder controller is disgusting wait with small children. Waited 45 in massive queue with 2 year old child and heat to be checked by 1 of 3 passport controllers serving hundreds of people (a lot with small children) in the queue. What is their problem? This is not the first time I ve experienced such poor service
Needed to wait an hour for a SECURITY check because of my laptop
Absolutely disgusted by the internal controls of the boards. Passed the checks, I get "stalked" by two policemen worse than a criminal, even I get followed by them for up in the bathroom. While I was coming out I was called by ciccio Police shit who started asking me for passport control and then started asking me questions about my origin, what I did in stansted, because I went to Naples ... bad checks, meaningless. ..according to the embarrassment, their manager has literally disappeared ... it was my first flight, from Stansted and will also be the last ... 10 years in uk never had these problems from Liverpool or Manchester.
Good airport overall! But security re covid 19 is a joke? Just back from Spain and free to mingle with other passengers, Im supposed to be in quarantine but no attempt to see how I'm going home from there, so could infect a lot of other people! Luckily I've no sign of it, but temperature not even checked as it was going out????? Where's the sense in that?
First,When we arrived at the airport, we had to use the airport bus which had horribly loud speakers. That really hurt my ears. Next, we had to use the toilets, which were filthy and no toilet papers and hand towels. I also got told off by another officer as my belongings were still on the table as I had to wait for the problem sorted, I was not asked to remove them either by the officer who was checking them. Following rules and getting told off because of it is nasty. When I wanted to complain, the officer threatened me taking in the room and making me wait there for an hour. If you can, you must avoid this airport.
I use this airport frequently and what I don't like is cues everywhere (mainly during rush hours), luck of power sockets and no enough sits in the waiting area. What also annoys me is people trying to sell me goodies.
But overall for me as a single traveler this airport is good enough.
The departure was closed which is unacceptable. Dirty, no place to sit, no charges for the phones, the people should lay in the floor and it was really cold. The worst airport ever. I highly doesn t recommend it!!!
Internet reception was terrible today, had trouble even getting my mobile boarding pass, I guess I'll have to print it the next time
Worst experience both times I used it. Flight was on time and lost more than 1and half hour to pass the passport control like u r in the 3rd world
d up on around 2000 people waiting on line
Dreadful service on Sunday 10th June, 2018 in the evening. 20 mins sat on runway after landing waiting for a stand. Even the pilot said his guess was as good as ours as to when he would receive some assistance. It then took 1.25 hours after security before our baggage could be re-claimed. There was no explanation, assistance or refreshment whilst this happened and there were some people with elderly relatives and young children. It was worse than a bus station!!! It has put me off using Stansted for travelling - something that should be an enjoyable experience.
Very quick security clearance. Very quiet alot less travellers due to Covid19.
Good connection from Cambridge. Long queue at security. Long walk to gate.
The worst airport I've been to. After the arrival almost 2 hours to get to control! It is impossible to plan transport from the airport because you do not know whether you will be waiting an hour or two until you kindly get to check and pick up your luggage. At the outlet another hour of queuing to get to the control, I barely managed to get on the plane (I advise you to be well over 2 hours before departure). The control threw away half the field without giving a reason. After passing control another drama because you have to go on a very long trip to get to the gates. I think it's normal that a man does not want to spend the whole day at the airport, I go in and wants to get on the plane as soon as possible! Since there are a lot of people traveling through what the service is not doing, then you have to hire new people!
a star because we can not put less, airport nullisime first time I miss the plane and nothing has been done to help us, a hellish tail to the search of the bags and it discusses and that chatty it tells the life we had left 40 min still time to spend a huge driveway mandatory passage even if we are not interested, in France calls are made in English and French, there is no effort for the traveler. Badly indicated signs I took 20 minutes to go to the luggage reclaim the panels were gone I had to go through a secret corridor looool brief as much pay more and go to a real airport
The number of times I have flown Athens-London and the reverse with Ryanair has always been delayed at about an hour. Right now we are more than an hour in the airplane and we expect to leave. I strongly suggest another company via Heathrow if the economic difference of the ticket is not great.
Is 11:30 pm in the morning and personal won t let any passengers in, because they start at 2:30am, they let everyone stayed in front of the gates in the middle of winter! This is outrageous!
My advice, if you think your going to be early. Leave even earlier. The security process takes a long time.
The security check takes hilariously long. The queue takes about 1 hour and the security personal is not trained properly, as they were chasing "shadows" of nonexisting toothpaste for about 20 minutes.
After the unnerving security check you are FORCED to take unnecessary turns through an endless duty-free area.
For my next trip i am willing to spend hundreds of pound just to avoid this airport from hell called stansted. Seriously!
Can't make a comment without no stars. Worst experience ever. Traveled with wife and they only offer 1 travel toiletry bag per passenger and they HAVE to seal. When asked if we could buy another bag straight answer no. Also told them that More
Been using the airport since many years. Out of necessity as you can judge by my rating. Although there have been attempts to modernise the airport, actual service/logistics has become a bigger mare than it was in the past.
Last experience had it all yesterday. First, the pricing structure of car parks and/or the single lane access to the airport - whatever was to blame, created a jam all the way to A120 (about 1.5mi of serious congestion and pedestrian moving speed). I guess no wonder people increasingly queue and block roundabouts to access drop-off area if 1h03min cost me 16.00 GBP in the orange car park. The delay to get there from A120 was 15 mins in the first place. Second, Ryanair luggage drop-off a shambles on this day due to skeleton staff and lack of assistance - much longer queues than usual because of this. Instead of the usual tops 5-10 mins spent 30 minutes here. Third, no longer using normal security queues, bound to lose another 20 minutes if not 30 minutes. But fast track did not help either yesterday due to moronic and slow staff looking to X-ray 3y old child, going through hand luggage with no obvious reason and had to wait for that alone 10 minutes or so. So in the end about 50 minutes yesterday wasted on logistics shortcomings of the airport/Ryanair - you can imagine what happens if you don't have much time to spare... I can see many people missing flights thru no fault of theirs. And not least because of the lengthy shops labyrinth that follows security check and one must absolutely navigate thru to get o the main waiting area with it's own issues as described in many other reviews.
Look, on really good days with no problem access to car park, fast luggage drop off you are still likely to suffer a bit in the security check queuing. But it's OKeyish - if you have your expectations set right. (Hence 2 stars not 1.) But the logistics/service issues mean that you risk getting it "wrong" far too many times.
This is probably one of the crappiest airports in the world.
Worst experience ever! The flight was for more than 2 hours delayed and as we were in Stansted nobody knew where are our baggages, arrived at 2 am and got our baggage at 4:15 am... never again!
Wifi dropped a few times and staff at Ryanair were cold and unfriendly, but Harry from information centre lifted the experience. We had a medical emergency which meant we lost our connection to Amsterdam. He helped us with purchasing a new flight, providing information, and printing the boarding passes for the next day. Thanks Harry!
It's small, it has no outlets and few places to sit.
Not a great experience on Friday night with Ryanair flight FR905 to Cork delayed with no information whatsoever until the actual departure time where the screens finally showed 1.5 hour delay... one security guard whom I asked just grudged, laughed, said sit and wait without even stopping... thankfully another one actually stopped and even though no solution was brought, a bit of kindness was welcome...
Arrived at Stansted Airport this evening, sat night at 8pm. Was in the non-EU passport queue for over 1.5hrs!! Almost as long as the flight! The queue wasn't even that long. For 90% of my wait there were only 2 desks operating!!!!!! Adds a bitter taste to the end of a holiday :(
It feels like I have went to ikea without shortcuts to get to my gate
Can't believe how dirty the airport is . Seems to be getting worse each time I visit
Very slick operation from arrival at Bus Station to getting to Boarding Gates. Allow 2 hrs before flight, I had 15mins only to wait for flight to appear with its Gate Number.
Stansted is more convenient than Heathrow, but it can get very busy at times. We always use their "Meet & Greet" parking (not a descriptive title at all.) Book it online before you go, or through Ryanair when you make your reservation.
The security line can get a little long, so get there early. They refuse to announce gate assignments until right before boarding. Plan to sit around in their main atrium and then sprint to your gate as soon as it's announced. It's not a great way of doing business, but that's what you get for going with a cheaper airline.
We've been stuck outside for an extended period of time between exiting the aircraft and entering the building more than once. Bring a jacket, because that's a cold experience in England.
Unruly in checking luggage without having any idea what is happening to them. Whenever I leave there I cry from the nerves.
I just flyed yesterday with ryanair from rome ciampino to london stansted. In ciampino they told me that is no more space in the cabins and i need to put my small luggage to embark. I bought 2 boxes of sigarettes in ciampino airport and i put it as well in my luggage. When i landed in stansted i just took my bag and went home with the cab. I was surprise at home when i open my bag that was no sigarettes inside but just the bag with the recive. Im very disappointing with the service. I sent an email to ryanair and i call stansted airport but none is reply me back . Thanks for your help .
Monika
Worst airport ever . Totally unacceptable and not kind to foot traffic .. parking way way to expensive and no public right of way and huge speed bumps that every other car hits on .. and to finish you have to pay 350 for the privilege .. a joke and should be shut down
As usual airport at capacity no room to move and staff at security extremely rude. The is no reason to be this rude if they are having a bad day don't take it out on passengers. To make e to use a different London airport.
the airport is not that small, really helpful staffs even though i need to be on line for 30 mins for immigration check in, the place is great.
2 hours before the flight is definitely too littile time with all the chaos and unprofessional patronising behaviour of staff.
Nice Airport for touring roung Europe !! me like it !!
Very efficient and friendly, clear directions and help throughout
Welcome to Stanstead. Where people are stupid and walk really slowly.
Ok so not the airports fault but my experience was stupid people not knowing about putting toiletries in a separate bag. And why oh why do people walk so slow?! Because we're all herded into a circular cattle shed we're we all sit together and get hot and sweaty. Not a great place to be after a long trip.
(Saying that - there's food, there's good signage and for the little I interacted with staff they were great...so not that bad)
Always busy. New refurbishments bring a hint of modern rnization
Transferring through. .... Our incoming plane landed 1 hour and no bags. Carousel assigned but so many unclaimed bags on it, it doesn't move. No helpers to remove bags so we, the passengers, did it. ... then massive queues at passport control, extremely slow and disorganised security check. No flight transfer so you have to go out and back through again. Almost missed our flight home. No staff gave a monkeys or any advice.... Never ever again...
Worst experience I have ever had going through airport security, highly stressful like a can of sardines with hundred of other people trying to get through the line and then the airport has one main concourse so you make it through security to sit in a large area with hundreds of other people without much quiet or privacy.
Ridiculous process, if you book a flight give yourself 3 hrs to check in and pass security. Any backpacks have to go through oversize luggage so another queue for that. If you go I recommend buying the fast track security as this cuts some wait time. One of the worst airports in the world!
Crowded as hell, flights are always late, it's a shopping centre more than an airport. I should me on the plane right now, they say that they might show which gate to go in another hour. They might..lovely!
My daughter and I were taking 7.25am flight to Ljubljana. I had pre-booked Short Stay Car Park as I am disabled and needed to be as close to the terminal as possible. I had called to find out best car park for disabled parking and access to terminal with Special Assistance requested from EasyJet. I was told Red Car Park, the disabled places being closest and there was phone to call the assistance. We got to the car park at 5.45. Searched Red Car Park but could not locate any disabled parking area, and the area closest to the terminal seemed to be partitioned off for some reason, with no obvious access.
My daughter called from one of the exit machines, and was told disabled parking was in Green and Blue car parks? A long way from the terminal!
We went into Orange Car Park and thankfully got a parking place right opposite the terminal entrance, but no sign of any means of calling the assistance. We asked an attendant, but got nowhere. I then had to make my way, on crutches, through into the terminal where we found the EasyJet check-in. They were very helpful, and got a wheelchair. My daughter said that she would take me through to passport/security, etc. There we hit chaos again. We were not allowed through the lane marked for wheelchair access, but had to join on the end of another queue where very rude people kept pushing in front. On the approach to security there were lanes for wheelchair access but cordoned off, and nobody available to let us through.
When we finally got through we had to negotiate the masses of people browsing the endless shops, and finally made it to the gate with the flight on Final Call. There we had to wait until someone could be found to wheel me across the tarmac (no boarding gantry for this flight) where the plane was waiting for us, the last two passengers.
What a difference at Ljubljana where everything was waiting for me and I was taken right through to meeting point by the same person.
The return to Stansted was somewhat better in that I was taken off the plane by a special vehicle, because the steps were wet, and transported to the terminal. Then taken by wheelchair through passport control and baggage reclaim to the main concourse. There we were left awaiting someone else to take us us out to our car. After some time my daughter decided that she would take on the task of wheeling me and pulling her case behind her. Not easy, as there are ramps!
To add insult to injury, when we got to the car park exit the Automatic Registration Plate reader did not work, and when I gave my number through the call system, they couldn't even find it on the system. Thankfully the Booking Ref was recognised so we escaped!
I will be seeking alternative ways to get to Ljubljana in future.
Worst airport i have ever been to in my entire life!!! Never book a flight from/to here!!
Expensive short stay carpark, lack of drop off, long stay carpark buses are confusing as hell. Not enough staff on security.... Cheap flights is the only Pros here...
Its lower then average. The piss stand in the toilets were dirty. There were pubes everywhere. Really crowded and busy. Too pricy in the restaurants!
Avoid if you can any checked luggage, unless you want to spend several hours at the airport waiting for it......... It is frankly ridiculous....
A really dreadful experience last Sunday morning. We - a family of four with an 8 month old baby - arrived at 6.30 am for an 8.30 flight. We parked in the Green Zone car park, which is the closest to the terminal, since we had read poor reviews of the Meet and Greet and also of the bus from the mid-term car park. We discovered that the trolleys require a pound coin, which we didn't have, so we struggled getting to the terminal arriving at 6.50. It then took forty minutes to drop off our bags and a further forty to get through security so we missed our flight - despite assurances from the check-in woman that we had plenty of times . The vast majority of the security belts were not working, the staff were rude and lacked any sense of urgency and the machines seemed to find every bag and person required a hand search. We met seven other people at Customer Service who had missed the same flight so a total of at least eleven - or 10% - were affected on this departure alone.
There is clearly something, or many things, wrong here.
First, the airport has a responsibility to get passengers through security in a timely fashion. If this takes more than 15 minutes and there is spare capacity which it has not deployed it is obviously negligent.
Second, there is no excuse for the rudeness of the security staff. There are signs everywhere reminding passengers not to abuse the airport employees. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
Third, the practice of closing the gate at a fixed time is iniquitous if the passenger has no idea how long it will take from arrival to gate. Simply saying "you should have allowed more time", regardless of how much time has been allowed, adds insult to injury.
Fourth, if there is to be one bag drop queue for all flights there needs to be some mechanism, like the one used at Luton, to prioritise passengers according to the imminence of their flight - for example by calling them to a separate desk well in advance of gate closure.
Fifth, there needs to be far better coordination between the airport and airline staff. The check in people should know how long it will take to clear security at any time and be able to advise passengers if they need to use the fast track. There is a sign giving number of minutes but this is inaccurate and represents queueing time from entry to the security area. It ignores time spent queueing to enter the area and also the time taken for the search itself.
At the moment hundreds of people are being ripped off at Stansted since they buy tickets for flights which through no fault of their own they are unable to board. This is something of a scandal. Until the airport cleans up its act it is probably wise to use an alternative.
Just bad.
I queued for 30 minutes at the passport control. After it was my turn it was only with a passport. So over to the other side and queue for another 30 minutes.
On the return flight, suitcase control, only two counters open, so queue again for 30 minutes.
Then you can only have ONE bag for the liquids. If the bag doesn't close, the staff just throws something away.
There is no smoking area, not even outside the airport is smoking allowed.
Then boarding is called, if you go to the gate, the staff says that boarding has not yet taken place, although it is also on the display.
Everything is checked by hand, personal details and flight tickets, which then leads to long waiting times.
Once and never again!
Only a few flights coming in and going out at the moment, however things are going pretty fast and straight forward, hopefully not long until all is back to normal.
I confirm worse airport ever and i've been travelling a lot. If you plan to flight from this airport please come really early and be prepared for despitefull employees. It took us more than an hour to go threw security. My bag has been blocked cause supposely contains liquids ... it was a tube of pills. On top of that dont plan to sleep on the wanting hall they'll wake you up on yelling at you.
If you need to buy something dont worry there is a 10min walk threw shops which you cant avoid.
Funny enough I have preferred to fly from Stansted today, during pandemic,then last year. More calm quiet and all checks are faster.
Airport with little information, few shops and cafes, very confusing due to lack of information.
Understaffed with long queues to check in baggage and to go through security resulting in lots of people not being able to get on their flights and on return long delays to go through passport control.
stanstedairport.com
