LONDON STANSTED AIRPORT   Passenger Reviews and Customer opinions

STANSTED AIRPORT review : 27 June 2008 : by G McNab

Customer Rating : 4/5

I was surprised to get through Stansted security into the departures lounge in about ten minutes flat. There seemed to be more scanners working and staff ensured the passengers were divided up between those open. Thankfully I did not have to take my shoes or belt off either so I found myself airside without the ordeal I remembered from a previous visit. It is worth noting Boots the chemist has a retail outlet airside as well as landside and both have the ‘Meal Deal’ at the food section. One can pick a snack, a sandwich, wrap or salad plus a drink for £3.49 which is much cheaper than many of the other airside outlets. The gents toilets could maybe do with a bit more cleaning but all in all it was a nice easy journey through the airport.

STANSTED AIRPORT review : 10 June 2008 : by Alasdair Brooks

Customer Rating : 3/5

While hardly the best or most exciting airport in the world, as a local resident (I live 15 minutes away by train or bus) I find it perfectly adequate, even while hoping - as someone who lives under the flight path - that it doesn't expand further. Yes, it looks a bit like a permanent construction site on the inside, and yes it can be crowded, but I prefer it to Heathrow. On the other hand, I never use Ryan Air or Easy Jet (my last flight from STN was on Turkish), so maybe this helps. I've never had a problem with immigration or security, and I even like the little trains from the main terminal to the gates. Stansted is nothing special; there are better airports in Europe, and it can't hold a candle to the major Asian airports, but it's certainly better than most American airports of similar size.

STANSTED AIRPORT review : 3 June 2008 : by Antony Barker

Customer Rating : 1/5

Arrived back in UK on Friday afternoon and was met with a huge amount of people waiting to go through the UK/EU passport control. Joined a queue and waited my turn. Noticed that the queue to my right, the first queue nearest the 'Other than UK/EU passport holders' was progressing much quicker. When I eventually got to the desk I noticed that the queue to my right was being handled by three immigration officers whereas the rest of the queues were handled by one. When I mentioned this to the official on the desk was met with rude, arrogant, unhelpful reply. (Great to be back in UK!). Why does Stansted airport treat UK/EU passport holders so poorly whereas the rest of the world go through immigration quickly with minimal delays? Will certainly look to use airports, other than Stansted, in the future. Immigration at Stansted is one big let down!

STANSTED AIRPORT review : 6 May 2008 : by J Day

Customer Rating : 1/5

Until recently, Stansted airport has offered a reasonable arrival experience. Now however, it has become a nightmare! Going through passport control recently took me two hours (at 11:30pm!), and a few weeks later, an hour and a half (also in the evening). We were herded like cattle, standing shoulder to shoulder in a cramped and badly ventilated area, with queues and staff moving at snails pace. Avoid it at all costs!

Stansted Airport review by R Hopkins

8 April 2008  Customer Rating :

Stansted travelling to Dublin. A worryingly long wait for the transfer coach, even by STN usual standards. Check-in queue very slow, but security went smoothly. As so often, there was virtually no shopping time and the gate number changed. However, as frequent travellers, this was no surprise. The return journey from Dublin made a pleasant change, as there weren't the same immigration formalities. I'm not sure that this is actually the right thing, however, in the current climate. The return coach transfer was a bit quicker than on recent occasions.

Stansted Airport review by Gavin Stewart

22 March 2008  Customer Rating :

Second time through Stansted, and again I had big trouble with the pick-up procedure at Arrivals. For a first timer, you will need to keep your wits about you. After collecting your bags, you face a very, very long trip to retrieve your car from the Long stay. Expect your wife and kids to wait a good 45 minutes for you to return. The problem is, the pick up point is effectively outdoors and your companions may freeze to death waiting for you. But if they wait in the terminal, how are you going to find each other once you return etc.? In practice, you have to negotiate some confusing signage to find the 15 minute pick up zone, amongst many similar zones. Choose the wrong one and you've got another lap to do. Once parked, sprint as fast as you can to find your companions in the airport - the clock is ticking. Sprint back down again with all your trolleys, then the next challenge is to find your car. Stansted offers you a number of exit points, all designed identically and impossible to distinguish from each other. You will come out at the wrong one, the coaches, Zone XX, eventually you find your car. Load up as fast as you can, and sprint back to the ticket machine before the 15 minutes expires. If you're lucky, you will make it. If you're unlucky, the queue at the ticket machine will be too long. And the object of all this? Is to obtain £1 from you.

Stansted Airport review by Francesco Gherardi

20 March 2008  Customer Rating :

I usually use Stansted to go in London because there is a cheap flight from my city (Forlì). But to be honest , Stansted is not really a confortable airport - it's far from the city (45 minutes by train) and the organization of the staff isn't one of the best. The baggage check out is so long.

Stansted Airport review by S Gaudicheau

19 February 2008  Customer Rating :

I was surprised how smooth my arrival was at STN. I think that coming before 7am might help. The shuttle train brings you to emigration, I was the 3rd one in line for EU passport holders and off I went into the Stansted Express. Impossible to miss from the arrival area.I admit that the train is old but it does its job leaving and coming on time and that's all I'm asking.I left London pretty late the same day and I was just on time even if there was a long queue at the security and now there is a second shoes control. I really can't complain but I might have been lucky twice the same day, so for me 3 stars.

Stansted Airport review by D Burkett

31 January 2008  Customer Rating :

I use the Stansted Express every day, as I work at STN - in cargo I might add. What strikes me is how embarrassing it can make me feel when visitors to the UK get on an ageing, dirty train and have to pay an extortionate fare to travel less than 50 miles to London. The platform escalators are frequently broken. There seems to be large puddles forming everywhere lately, as a result there are cones placed all over the place - just in case you couldn't see the small lake forming in front of you! The platforms, seating and decor are grubby and there is a distinct lack of information screens. The station feels like a multi-storey car park! Come on STN and Stansted Express. I am lucky as an airport worker that I get discounted travel, but even what I pay seems a lot - fix the leaks, clean the place up, buy some new trains and charge a realistic fare! It is embarrassing that hundreds of thousands of visitors' first experience of our country is of a badly run, badly maintained service that costs a fortune!

Stansted Airport review by James Lewis

29 January 2008  Customer Rating :

NotHad the misfortune to fly from STN yesterday. Only 10 minutes to check in, but 40 minutes in the security queue. Pity the people in front of me, whose small son needed the toilet. Half the X-ray machines were unmanned, although there were some security staff hanging around with nothing better to do. Didn't have time to complain, so straight to Pret for inflight sandwiches, no time for shopping. Another disaster area: they only had two left, and obviously the staff couldn't care less about restocking. "We'll try and get some sent over, if you'll wait" one said, in an effort to be halfway helpful. Hello! This is an airport; people haven't got time to hang around, especially after 40 minutes at security. One star? Minus several hundred stars!

Stansted Airport review by Ciaran McCafferty

29 January 2008  Customer Rating :

I've passed through Stansted on a number of occasions over the past few months, usually on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings, and typically returning on Sunday evenings or nights. Stansted Express is pretty dreadful, with about 1 in 4 journeys running to the timetable suggested, and the trains themselves are old although usually clean. I tend to use online check in and travel with hand luggage, so I can avoid the snaking queues for check-in and head straight for security. My general impression is that this is improving, I would say 10-15 minutes is the typical wait I have endured, which is acceptable to me. Airside there is little to do, but the concourses are kept reasonably clean. Returning from the UK or Ireland to Stansted means that passport control thankfully does not apply; the queues for the border posts are invariably thronged on a Sunday evening. Overall, I would say STN is just about keeping its head above water; hopefully the extension will provide some relief.

Stansted Airport review by Charles King

22 January 2008  Customer Rating :

Not a pleasant experience. The main problem with STN is that it is running way over its capacity, with the airport running out of places to sit down even on a (presumably relatively quiet) mid Friday afternoon in January. What it must be like at peak times, I dread to think. However, it did take only about 15 minutes to get through security outbound. Note that once in the main terminal, you can't go to use the lounges (which are in satellite 1) unless your flight is departing from those gates as there is no way to return to the main departure hall (so e.g. Priority Pass is useless). On return at 10.30 Sun night, having sprinted past other passengers on our flight and on others, we were held for about 3 minutes in the previously mentioned corridor before we could join the queues to get through customs. It took us about 25 minutes to get to the front of these queues despite all available desks being open. Presumably those behind us were still stuck in the corridor. Then went straight down to the Stansted Express. This did run on time, but the train was filthy, seats were missing etc. I felt quite ashamed that this is some visitors' first view of Britain.

Stansted Airport review by Anthony McElligott

15 January 2008  Customer Rating :

I travelled through Stansted yesterday - arriving early morning from Shannon and leaving later that day for Berlin. The airport is still a mess, tacky and over priced; the security is petty minded and downright punitive. I don't carry luggage so I was not affected; but I noted how security at the entrance to screening were weighing bags on little scales to ensure they were all exactly under 10kgs, and if so, then measured them! Dozens of irate and confused customers were being sent back to check-in - where, as some protested, their bags had been previously cleared to go as cabin luggage. Who decides these rules? The connection from the airport into London was a complete shambles: the cost of a cheap day return to Liverpool St was £17.40 but the train only ran as far as Tottenham Hale where I had to change on the underground at an extra cost. The underground itself was not functioning due to engineering works. Thankfully my friends drove me back to the airport later. By contrast, Schoenefeld is well-run and clean; security is discreet and transport into the city costs just 2.10€ single for roughly the same length of journey as Stansted to L'pool Street and runs late into the night.

Stansted Airport review by Katherine Prior

23 November 2007  Customer Rating :

I was disapointed first at the filthy, rundown state of the Stansted Express from Liverpool Street Station and then on arrival, at the very grotty condition of the women's loos. Several of the doors did not shut, loo seats were missing, and, most extraordinary of all, only one out of about six or seven taps was working. Having finished queuing for a tap, I then had to queue 25 minutes to get through security. (My recent experiences at Heathrow 3 have been queuing times of less than 10 minutes.) There were unmanned x-ray machines and apparently unoccupied staff, and those staff who were on duty seemed exceptionally poorly trained in knowing how to cope with pushchairs. They need a dedicated queue for pushchairs, wheelchair users and other mobility impaired people, and late boarders, so that the regular queues are not repeatedly held up by someone rushing through at the last minute or by some poor parent trying to wrestle with babies, bags, toys, coats, pushchairs and plastic bags of liquids, whilst also having to sample pots and bottles of babyfood!

Stansted Airport review by Matt Battersby

14 November 2007  Customer Rating :

For once, a reasonable experience at Stansted - a rarity these days. Outbound can't blame BAA on ridiculous queue for American Airlines check in; security quick and not too surly. Gate lounge space bit small for full 767. Return passport control very quiet at 10am with all desks fully manned.

Stansted Airport review by G McNab

9 November 2007  Customer Rating :

Poor old Stansted. Once a shining example of an efficient, functional airport now a victim of it's own success. Even at 15.30 the queues for security were enormous. From joining the queue to reaching the x-ray machine took me 46 minutes. I timed it. Some queues seemed to have two x-ray machines and move slightly quicker. Mine had only one. I don't think anyone objects to security in this day and age but it is frustrating to queue for so long and then see so many unmanned machines.

Stansted Airport review by Simon Rickman

1 November 2007  Customer Rating :

Travelling to Dublin with Ryanair, took over 45 minutes to get through security. At peak time, nearly 200 people in each queue, plenty of empty x-ray machines ready to use and alleviate the problem. Plenty of BAA staff standing around having a chat, maybe off duty but go and have a party somewhere else it does not leave a good impression. No attempt to get people through who have a flight boarding soon, no announcements, everyone in the queue moaning. Need more staff, not more shops - absolutely terrible service from BAA, took me the same amount of time to get through security as it did to drive from home. Will not fly from Stansted again, which is a shame as it is a beautiful airport, just run like a shambles.

Stansted Airport review by Paul Smith

1 November 2007  Customer Rating :

This airport is getting worse and worse. Returned from Szczecin on Sunday afternoon only to be held in the walkways and tunnels while waiting for passport control. Very humid and crowded with very little control. Constant messages stating that waiting in the corridors helps the arrivals process. How can waiting in a humid corridor help the process?? It just makes people stressed, tired and angry. When we finally arrived on the upper levels where the security checks are, only half of the stations were manned. This is clearly not an acceptable situation BAA. Our London airports are becoming more of an embarassment to our country. As for the 'tougher' checks on the passports, the lady who checked ours gave it a quick scan, checked my photo and gave me it back. Considering how quick they look at the passport, a fully manned passport control would easily improve the speed at which people can get through security. We are constantly paying more airport taxes, the least we can expect is to see some improvement for our money.

Stansted Airport review by L Doran

9 October 2007  Customer Rating :

Airport security - what a joke! I realise that in these difficult times we all want to be safe and have to accept a certain amount of inconvenience to facilitate this, but my experience on Monday 1st Oct. was positively 'pythonesque'. In my hand luggage for the trip was my make-up bag (surely a necessity for all ladies!). After going through the x-ray machine an official opened up the bag and told me I would have to leave behind my mousse foundation which was contained in a small aerosol (50ml).When I queried as to why this was so, he explained that it must be placed in a plastic bag. My make-up bag is in fact made of plastic as I pointed out to him and has a zipper on the top to facilitate sealing. No he replied - this would not suffice, it had to be a clear plastic bag." Why "I asked; "In order that we can see it "he replied. "Well you are holding it in your hand, I replied. You can see what it is, I will squirt some out and put it on my skin if you like." "No, I have to take it away from you" he said. So I said " So if I had been in possession of a clear plastic bag to place it into I could have kept it then?" He replied "Yes you could - blame Mr. Brown" and with that he walked away and placed my items in a box behind the x-ray machine. So the security policy of Stansted airport claims that my small aerosol can of mousse foundation poses no risk inside a clear plastic bag but constitutes a risk to security inside my plastic make up bag! This is beyond ludicrous! All this constitutes to my mind is the theft of my property for no good reason at all and it is about time they recruited some employees with a bit of common sense.

Stansted Airport review by James Kansky

9 October 2007  Customer Rating :

Stansted suffers from overcrowding. In Summer it is horrible and simply can't cope with the crowds. But in Winter it not that bad. Getting to the gate is relatively quick. Shops and restaurants are decent, and much and more useful than at Heathrow. Only big downside is the Stansted "Express" train, which isn't an express train at all. uge difference given that most flights departing from Stansted are low cost flights.

Stansted Airport review by B Selourn

27 September 2007  Customer Rating :

This airport is truly an awful, mismanaged, under-designed nightmare of a place! Friday evening 21st Sept 2007, 40 minutes to clear security. If that wasn't bad enough worse was yet to come, returning Sunday night 23rd Sept arriving at 11.45. It took 80 minutes from getting off the plane to reach passport control. Stuck in the crowded corridors, packed shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of other passengers, no ventilation. No idea what's going on other than 'to assist the arrivals process passengers may have to wait in this area for a short time'.

Stansted Airport review by Richard Chamberlain

27 September 2007  Customer Rating :

Arrived on time at 23.10 at STN on 22 September to proceed to the end of the queue which backed up to the airport gate. The queue was controlled and they let a few people proceed only every 10 minutes or so. By the time the queue inched along I reached EU UK Frontier Passport inspection only at 00.25. There were a thousand or so people waiting in the queue for passport control where 7 out of 15 desks were manned. There were no special inspections there was just too few officials to deal with the numbers. I went to the office overlooking the throngs queuing to complain where I was handed a form instructing me how to complain and they told me 200 people had complained that evening. Their bosses were not there to see the queues. I said surely they can examine timetables but they made no comment. Entering the baggage reclaim areas, carousels were overflowing with luggage since the luggage was arriving one hour before the passengers! I have arrived at Stansted a few moths before at 18.00 and there was no problem.

Stansted Airport review by Jack Sheldon

18 September 2007  Customer Rating :

Departures, about 20 minutes wait for security. Boarding card control a shambles as only certain doors into security can "validate" (whatever that means) internet boarding cards. Security is illogical, once you've gone through it and think it's all over, you have a second line where you have to do the shoe carnival. Why don't you do the shoe carnival at main security and have the staff doing the shoe carnival available for main security (possibly allowing an extra security line to open)? Also, does anyone know why they have finger docks at Stansted? At the bit of the terminal I was at, all the aircraft were disconnected from the finger docks and all passengers had to go down to the tarmac and climb up stairs into the aircraft. Are they all broken or something?

Stansted Airport review by Maire Leese

10 August 2007  Customer Rating :

Arrived at Stansted 11am 6 August from Lyon. Previously had experienced long delays at Immigration but this time - despite being horrendously busy - was well organised and every desk for once manned. BAA staff at back of the small hall were directing staff to quicker queues and presumably Immigration managers in front of the desks directing people from both sides of queue barriers to quickest lines. Seemed very efficient and friendly. Commented to officer who checked my passport who said he'd been drafted in from another location to assist. Clearly made all the difference from my previous visits. Well done but shame airport still filthy dirty and toilets in baggage hall a disgrace.

Stansted Airport review by G Seiler

19 July 2007  Customer Rating :

What a weekend - got delayed by 1.5 hours on Friday lunchtime departing to Venice because of the on goin security nightmare - if we really need this much security lets get rid of all those shops that make BAA a huge profit and put it to better use getting the paying customers to their planes quicker, safer and less stressed. And lets face it all of us fare paying passengers have already paid a huge privilege to BAA to use the airport - do we really need to be fleeced more than once. Its not like any of the shops are offering any great savings over the high street these days. Then coming back last night we had to suffer over a 1 hour wait to get anywhere near the customs and immigration desks after our plane landed. They had signs up to expect delays because of new procedures but to be honest I would have thought at 12:30 at night it would be running smoothly, but here we were with each desk taking about a minute to process one person (at this rate the 3 or 4 737 loads of people at this time of night nearly completely crippled it) - do they operate this system during the rush hour?? what are they thinking? Or is this a way to get more car parking revenue out of the people waiting to collect them.

Stansted Airport review by Trevor Harvey

30 June 2007  Customer Rating :

For the first time for a long time I picked someone up at Stansted and went to the '15 minute pick up point' as arranged. In the past this was free and the signing implies, I suggest, that this continues to be the case. On arrival at the exit barrier I found that I would need to pay a £1 to get out. In the event and with cars queuing behind me I was able to pay at the barrier with a credit card. Without the Credit Card, I would have had to find a place to park and then go to a pay station to pay my £1. What money grabbing nonsense.

Stansted Airport review by Mark Davis

22 June 2007  Customer Rating :

I have the same views as all the other recent STN users, it was a great place to fly from but now its a typically joke - apparently the Chip readers at the "border control" are very slow. But my biggest worry is that now BAA are owned by a Spanish Company is the investment/capital is on hold? At least they have got rid of the "students" who kept people queuing before security asking about liquids and gels! Its a national disgrace but what are BAA going to do - nothing! What choice do we have?

Stansted Airport review by Anthony McElligott

20 June 2007  Customer Rating :

I would like to add my voice to the complaints. In addition to a very bad experience flying Ryanair - over two hours delay - the arrival at Stansted on June 15/16th was a scandal. Close to one o'clock in the morning and passengers were being corralled in the corridors before even getting to the actual arrivals hall. There the scene was almost biblical - crowds of weary passengers - many families with small children and elderly - all being treated to the customary British welcome at 'UK Border'. The deployment of a large contingent of armed police had nothing to do with 'fighting terrorism' but everything to do with intimidating the public into passivity. The process took around 40-50 minutes between disembarking and exiting the airport. British airports have now become the blackspots of European and inter-continental travel. Immigration staff at Stansted that evening/early morning clearly were out of their depth. But for passengers the experience was much worse. This is a national scandal, and those responsible should be held to account for their shambolic mismanagement. All in all, flying through Britain is a dispiriting experience, the security staff are increasingly rude, the environment is stuffy, and really very dirty (just look at those seats at Heathrow Terminal 1 departing for Ireland and the Channel Islands, or at Stansted - ugh!!

Stansted Airport review by Robert Przemioslo

20 June 2007  Customer Rating :

Stansted airport treats passengers with contempt. A month ago I thought it must be unusually busy whilst waiting for 80 minutes in a non air conditioned tunnel to be allowed through to join the chaos in front of the passport control. No priority for the aged or those with young children. No organised line queues so survival of the fittest attitudes everywhere. Same thing happened last night, 60 minutes so I got to Bristol at 5am! The airport cant cope so why plan to expand? Cut the flight numbers so the infrastructure available can cope, or is it that income might suffer?

Stansted Airport review by A Briggs

14 June 2007  Customer Rating :

The immigration shambles is certainly not a Sunday night special. Returning on Ryanair in the hour before midnight on Saturday is reason for the deepest gloom when you find you can barely get out of the transit train (only one carriage of which runs: is this another attempt to cause the crowds to accumulate somewhere else ?) for the crush of people trying to get through immigration before having to show up for work on Monday. Three of four non-EU passport desks were unmanned; and even though all the EU ones were staffed, there is nowhere near the right number of them. The terrible crowding has to be seen to be believed. Does anyone care ? Is anyone listening ? Could someone get rid of the tawdry, shabby, shops (especially those thieving ones which sell water at the price of wine) and open up a sensible number of immigration counters, so that we can come home without this stress ? Perhaps we should stop being so stoical about it and storm through. If there is shabbier treatment to be found anywhere in Europe (but Heathrow doesn't count), I have yet to see it.

Stansted Airport review by John Oram

14June 2007  Customer Rating :

One word - appalling. Arrived back from LAS to all the bad things I expected. Immigration queues remain scandalous. The queues were badly managed today and I have been told that a 'snake system' is due to be introduced in July. Such a system is already in use for the Rest of the World lines (at STN). Also promised is an expanded immigration hall, due 2008 and probably already late as they have not got past the foundations. It is unclear whether there will be enough immigration officers on sensible rosters to take advantage of a larger hall. Landside was no better. The queue in WHS where I was gasping for a bottle of water was being reduced only slowly by two cashiers who seemed entirely unfamiliar with their tills not to say many of the products passing through their hands.

Stansted Airport review by Al Strachan

6 June 2007  Customer Rating :

London Stansted: It's not just Sunday nights. Even at mid-day when a few flights arrive together there is chaos at immigration. People really should take photos of the queues in areas where photography is not specifically prohibited and expose this disgraceful situation. Should not be problematic taking photos because the queues go a long way back and well away from the immigration area. The immigration shambles at STN really needs to be addressed immediately.

Stansted Airport review by John Oram

6 June 2007  Customer Rating :

Stansted is an airport in decline, moodily failing to put itself out to help the customer. I spent some time in the terminal prior to flying the next day and it does not bear close examination. I should say I was staying in the Radisson and not sleeping in the terminal - just looking at it with a critical eye. I have made several recent visits both to travel and to see off. For one thing, it is looking quite grubby. A number of information TVs have been moved or decommissioned and I can only imagine that this is a surly effort at crowd control. The post box has been sealed although it is not clear whether at the behest of the Post Office or our paranoid security forces.

Stansted Airport review by Brian Crofts

22 May 2007   Customer Rating :

Much improved on departure, but the same chaotic scenes greeting Sunday night arrivals. Hundreds of people backed up in a corridor waiting for passport control. The security man controlling the front of the queue said that a 'serious incident' had occurred, but there were no tannoy announcements and no explanation as to why this is always the case at Stansted on Sunday evenings. Once again many people missed last trains and buses.

Stansted Airport review by David Phillips

2 May 2007   Customer Rating :

I was also caught up in the utter chaos at Stansted 'Airport' on Sunday 29 April 2007 at 23:45 when it took some 90 minutes to disembark from the plane to get through Passport control. Initially we sat on the plane for about 15 minutes after we arrived 'nearly' at the gate before the airport could find someone to guide the pilot on to his precise station. We then had to walk along hundreds of yards of corridor - up and down non working escalators to arrive at the back of a queue of several hundred exhausted and angry customers. There was never any explanation of what was happening from anyone in authority, neither were there any toilets, or seats or any form of assistance for elderly or disable passengers. The Passport Control area was sheer and utter chaos and the dozen or so Immigration Officials seemed as bored by the whole nightmare as the customers seemed angry. An announcement over the tannoy system brought some light humour when passengers were requested not to take photographs of the queues - at which point nearly everyone got out their cameras and did just that ! Let us hope that those people work for National Newspapers or the like - it needs publicity of this sort to make the Airport Authorities sit up and take notice of what is going on. At Baggage Reclaim luggage was strewn over the entire floor area and many passengers seemed convinced that their bags had been stolen. Having found our own bags we then proceeded to the long stay bus queue and had to wait a further 20 minutes at 01:00am for the bus to the Pink Elephant parking area. Considering the ridiculously high charges that are charged for car parking by this company we really felt that a few more buses timed to coincide with the arrival of aircraft would be useful. The management of this Airport should be thoroughly and utterly ashamed of their performance and should be offering compensation to their customers. How can it take as long to get from the plane to the car park as it took to get from Rome to England ?

Stansted Airport review by Liz Partridge

1 May 2007   Customer Rating :

Stansted Airport 11.45pm on Sunday 29th April 2007. One hour from plane touching down to reach passport control desk. No explanation from anyone about delays. Hundreds of passengers caught in corridors with no seats or toilet facilities. No-one to advise or assist us. Children, elderly and disabled people all kept in same queue. When I eventually found a member of BAA's staff she blamed delays on Passport & Immigration service. 12 passport staff on duty - not all desks were staffed. No apologies. Suitcases had been taken off the baggage carousels and strewn on the floor - no security for bags, anyone could have taken them. People missing trains and coaches because of delay. Please be warned - Stansted is a nightmare at your journey's end. Be prepared or travel to another airport.

Stansted Airport review by Mandy King

25 April 2007   Customer Rating :

My very first experience of Stansted and it took 90 minutes to clear immigration at arrivals - the worst I've ever encountered anywhere (and I don't consider myself an occasional traveller). Not only that, but when I asked the immigration clerk dealing with me if this was unusual he told me that it was always like this - or worse - every Sun and Thursday evening! The airport authority really needs to get this sorted, by either adjusting flight landing times or improving the infrastructure to support the amount of slots it sells - at the times it sells them for. I'm returning to Stansted again on Thursday in a few weeks time at the end of a holiday and am now dreading the experience - having been told long queues are the norm! I've never had these problems with EasyJet at Gatwick - I will avoid Stansted like the plague in the future.

Stansted Airport review by W Humphreys

24 April 2007   Customer Rating :

Truly awful experience. Rude security staff, ultra-slow check-in. A complete nightmare. Pay the extra, don't travel Ryan air, and don't go through Stansted if you want to arrive at your destination with your sanity intact.

Stansted Airport review by François Girardin

24 April 2007   Customer Rating :

Stansted airport passport area is a disgrace, if your plane arrive after 11pm then you have to queue for more than one hour, it is the 3rd time this month that happen to me, but yesterday we have to wait for 120 minutes before to be able to reach the desk of immigration to be confronted with officer that obviously were not concerned. The waiting have to be done in the tunnel leading from the plane with no proper ventilation for this kind of crowd. it's a shame, and accident waiting to happen and for no proper reason realy, it will be easy to double the line of controller. The attitude of the immigration and their management is a shame.

Stansted Airport review by Rosemary Saunders

24 April 2007   Customer Rating :

I arrived at Stansted last night at 11:30 from Venice and it was pandemonium in the passport control area! More and more train loads of passengers were arriving with nowhere to go making it was a health and safety nightmare. I had been standing in the scrum for at least ten minutes before a sudden influx of what I think was immigration control staff seemed to appear from somewhere or other, I suggest they keep a closer eye on the arrivals board. It finally took one hour and ten minutes to get through by which time the luggage from my flight was being offloaded into a pile on the floor to make room for the next flight's baggage! When I first started to use Stansted about three years ago I was most impressed, it was far superior to Gatwick or Heathrow but there has most certainly been a decline in service. All but three of the desks were open so although that would have eased things slightly it wouldn't have solved the problem. Stansted is obviously taking on the business without investing in the infra-structure to cope with it. Come on Stansted, you can do better than this!

Stansted Airport review by Alan Reeves

20 April 2007   Customer Rating :

Where's the button for negative stars? Stansted Airport is not just the worst-designed airport in the world, it also has the slowest and most badly-planned Passport Control area. Last night (11-04-07) when 4 fully- laden aircraft arrived just before midnight, the four members of staff on duty did nothing to rise to the challenge - if anything, they went on a go-slow. It shouldn't take more than 5 seconds to check a passport, but from what I could see, the staff were taking between 1 and 2 minutes for each person - even children. After half an hour, trains were arriving and there was no room for passengers to get off into the waiting area. If there had been a fire, there would have been a major disaster - people were packed like sardines and close to rioting. I always thought that the Police armed with machine guns were there to prevent acts of terrorism, but I now believe that they are there to protect the Passport Control staff from being lynched by irate passengers! I was travelling with my two young daughters, who were very tired and frightened by the crowds, and when it came to our turn, the lady at the desk insisted that we approach one at a time! Naturally, I refused - insisting that we stay together, and to her credit, she backed down. These delays are totally unacceptable - especially since everyone on the flight had already had their passports checked at least three times at the other end - and I can certify that nobody got on or off the aircraft on the journey! On previous occasions, I have missed rail connections because of delays at Stansted's Passport Control, adding as much as 8 hours to my onward journey, but at least last night, I only had to pay for an extra day's stay at the ripoff carpark!