London Stansted Airport

Arrived very early thankfully as it took almost an hour to get through security. The lines were unorganised and for at least 15 mins we stood in what felt like an animal pen huddled together like sardines. Everyone was pushing lines and everyone was too hot and uncomfortable. Staff presence was minimal at the queuing stage, this only made the wait longer due to line jumping. Once we got through we discovered that their were joined free seats to wait at and it was overcrowded.

So bad - trying to get through the duty free and restaurant area was nearly impossible, it has only just been finished but the design is abysmal. There are people sitting on the floor because there are not enough seats and therefore you cannot get through. Last call for our flight was very early - lots of people running due to this only to find the plane waiting in darkness without the staff there yet. On arriving back - very, very long walk through line for passports and very long wait.

Is this a shopping mall or an airport? Long queues, overcrowded. Just poor. I am not sure what kind of customer experience they are looking for travellers to enjoy but it completely fails as far as I am concerned. You have to walk from one end of the airport to the other nearly twice through dozens of shops to get the the gates. Why? And a ridiculous charge to drop off.

Total disappointment. Booked car into the Airport's own Parking. Postcode given to enter Sat Nav took us to a different place and we had to drive around to find it. Once we got there, the signs were very bad. Finally parked and got the bus to Terminal which seemed to go round the whole airport and took ages to get there. Inside the Terminal - total chaos. People just roaming around trying to find out where to go and complete lack of signs to direct passengers. The check in queues were long and very slow. Finally passed through to Security where the queues were even more horrendous. 1 Staff member shouting at passengers directing them to queue up. After a 25 min wait to get through. On the other side a mad rush as passengers (now obviously late) young, old, families with kids ridiculously made to navigate their way on a spiralling path through duty free with staff trying to stop you to sell goods. Small and badly designed area leading to larger clustered area with more shops and no clear signing to help passengers get to the gates. Finally we found the narrow passageway that led to our gate (marked 10 min) which actually took us close to 20 as we weaved our way through other passengers also going to the gates in a rush to get there before the gate closed. Got stuck behind the large queue of passengers waiting to board another flight and could not get through to the gate. When we finally did - was told gate closed and flight departing. So we missed the flight. No point booking a flight, having so much stress and not even managing to get on it. Very badly managed airport. Understaffed, bad layout, unclear signage, huge queues.

Never again at Stansted. We missed our flight due to long security queues. But we were not the only ones - at least 11 people missed this flight. Airport was clearly understaffed out of 22 gates only 8 were in use. When we tried to complain to the airline they were blaming security, security sent us back to airline - at this point we were running out of time until the next flight. They made us re-buy tickets for double price. Waste of time and money. Arrive at least 4 hours before your flight not 2 I would say.

Probably the most impressive airport I've visited. After very bad experiences at Heathrow, I was hesitant to fly to any London airport. Luckily my view has made a complete 180. Stansted is the best airport in Europe I've been to. Security is very thorough and extremely organised. Everyone has their liquids in bags well before they reach the scanning area. This is a first for me. All too often people are doing this while at the belt already thereby causing major delays. Duty free is very big but most of all the other shops and eating places are excellent. Very clean and friendly service from everyone. WiFi service available for one hour, which is perfect for a stopover or for most people just waiting for their flight. Train to downtown London is a bit pricey but it’s a great train and gets you there very quickly and on time. Highly recommended.

I recently returned from a trip to the UK via Stansted Airport. I must say that was the worst experience of all airports I have travelled through in my 35 years of travel. Sunday 13 March ca midday check in was slow, security check even slower (chaotic) and 25 min. I would hate to be there in Holiday season. Then an interminable walk through 200 m of shops before I reached the Terminal proper where the seating arrangements are distinct only in the lack of them and which seem to be reduced to a minute number of seats? I don’t include benches as seats. Looking for a toilet meant another 5 min walk where I hoped to find drinking water fountain without success. Asking one of the staff where I could find such a fountain resulted in a blank look and the suggestion that I could purchase bottled water in several of the shops. When my flight was called it was a long way to gate 87 no walkways here. It was all in all a thoroughly bad experience which I will avoid repeating in future. I would to hear your comments on these points

Yet again the experience was not positive - over an hour to clear Border Control. Several passport reader machines were again not working, staff were difficult to understand and irritable. Massive queues, waited for my turn only for the machine reader to fail. A horrendous experience that spoilt the holiday. Will be looking at changing to either Luton or Southend. Unfortunately this is the normal experience for us at this airport - very poor. Staff training is most certainly needed in communication - avoid the airport if you can.

I travel a lot to London on business and booked my return flight through this airport as the times suited, what a mistake. The Stansted "express" takes forever, the security check is chaos. We were not even able to get into the area because the numbers of people waiting to get through were massive, the delay was unacceptable and I reckon hundreds of people must have missed their flight. This is an excuse for an airport and with so many other choices traveling to London I will definitely not be using again.

Thoroughly tedious experience at arrivals. Waiting in queue for security for 40 mins as several flights arrived together. Really should not be difficult to schedule staff accordingly and have a reasonable number of gates etc. On top of that, the toilets afterwards were a mess. Stansted used to be nice, but there are very evident cost cutting measures in place. Their loss: I will be aiming for Luton more often. The extra distance from home will be offset by less time waiting.