London Stansted Airport

Nightmare - unless your number one reason for flying is to feel like you have bought a cheap ticket. I used to fly from here weekly - years ago when it first opened and loved the friendly, clean spacious airport. The airport now appears to be 'owned' by Ryanair and easyJet. Tonight I'm only picking up friends, I was made aware by the friends that there is a charge for just entering the airport in a car £3.00? so decided to park up and pay £7 for an hour. I wasn't made aware that the £3 'drop off' charge results in drivers randomaly stopping on the dual carriageway to pick up passengers who had climed fences to avoid the 'drop off' charge. Once inside the terminal there is no seating or facilities in the check in area. So everyone arriving in the evening - with a view to waiting for the check in to open for an early flight can be found sleeping on the limited chairs in the arrivals meeting area. Uncomfortable, unfriendly chaos as the flight disgorges from customs. Feels more like a refugee camp than an airport. If Burger King is closed forget it they shut off access to their seating area when the close. Just picking up friends has from this low cost bus station was enough. I'll be sticking to LCY - LGW - LHR.

Utter chaos on the 8/3/16 at Stansted Airport. My aunt and I missed our flight to a family funeral, because of what seems to be understaffing at Stansted airport, enormous queues, fed up passengers, unhappy staff. My aunt is exhausted from this experience, Manchester Airport Group who run the airport should be ashamed of themselves.

Gosh. I (and thousands of other passengers) were subjected to a horrible ordeal getting through security at Stansted. I understand the need for security and am grateful for it. But yesterday it took 10 - 15 mins even to get to the stage of scanning my boarding pass just to enter the security area. Once inside, there was mayhem and only one poor member of staff who was making no attempt to direct people (it was a scrum - who knew what to do?). Once in the queue, people began to desperately wonder if they would miss their flight or not. It took me about 40 minutes to arrive at the point where my bag and I were to be checked. My bags were fine but I set off the scanner. Many people were missing their flights. The staff were also rude and awful to them. One security man shouted that it was the passengers' fault if they missed their flight. It was pandemonium. Once into the terminal - there were insufficient screens and staff. In effect I felt like I'd entered a disorienting shopping mall - not an airport. All in all needlessly horrible.

Awful, awful airport totally not fit for purpose. Last time I went I vowed I would never use it again and one year on, Ryanair's cheap flights enticed me there and what a mistake it was. Departure and arrival experiences were both abysmal and I will never use it again. Going out the obligatory queueing to go through security checks (6 stations only were open out of 24 available) was not acceptable. Waited about 40 minutes which is just not on. Return flight was 30 minutes early but we had to queue to even get in to passport control area. Waited 45 minutes in dreadful queuing system to find only 6 passport stations open out of possible 20 or so. They know exactly what times the incoming planes are arriving and how many people are on them so there is no excuse at all. Big signs up saying Stansted Airport and UK Border Force are working together to improve customer service. What a laugh that is. The place gets worse everytime we go there. Just like everything else in the good old UK - badly run and not fit for purpose.

The consistently half hour plus queues at passport control on arrival are a scandal. The airport know when and how many passengers will arrive and still fail to ensure enough passport staff are on duty. I use the airport frequently and there are other faults such as not announcing the gate numbers until 15 minutes before they open when the walk to the gate can be 12 minutes. They are desperate to keep the passengers in the shopping area, but, for passengers with ambulatory difficulties this is not acceptable.

30 minute security queues - such a joke. Can't believe this is the new and improved airport, it should be much quicker and less crowded. Bigger airports like Heathrow and Gatwick split the queues between dozens of sections instead of one long snaking crowd.

After an awful experience using Stansted last time, I decided to wait until my recent break to make a judgement. I shouldn't have waited, the airport is truly awful. In it's early days, it worked a treat. Now the outside is like Fort Knox and very foreboding. Parking is a nightmare, queues to get in, delays when the ANPR doesn't work. The terminal is at bursting point. Crowded at most times. Big queues to get through passport control. The after check-in shops are ridiculously cramped and the food areas packed to the point I couldn't get food. Remember most flights now include a near Marathon hike to the gates. On my return, the obligatory hour wait (2.5 hours last time) to get through passport control. Information TV's not in use. Miserable, rude staff ignoring questions just saying 'you have to queue'. Overall Stansted is an embarrassment to the UK. All other airports serving London are a better option. I will be booking elsewhere from now on.

This airport has become a joke. It used to be good a few years ago. Now it's gone down so much that using it is a very unpleasant experience. In the main public area, there is now only one toilet. The queues are appalling and the toilet is not cleaned often enough and it's not uncommon to find it without toilet paper (been there 4 times over the past 3 months). The queues at pick times are a risk for any traveller with a plane to catch: in December it took me one hour to get from the M11 to the terminal because the paying gates at the front of the terminal were holding the traffic which was having a knock-on effect all the way back to the motorway.

My wife is a wheelchair user - normally we are boarded first but we were taken onto our easyJet flight after all other passengers which was awkward. The cause of this seemed to be a lack of organisation from the Stansted special assistance team - who at one point almost escorted us across the apron to the wrong aircraft. The large terminal and satellite layout means there is a lot of distance to cover, so be sure to arrive in plenty of time for your flight - you will need it. Overall, really not a pleasant experience. First and last time using EasyJet through Stansted. It will be Luton or Gatwick for our next trip to the capital.

Again, Stansted 'security' outdoes itself. I travel, frequently, with the same toiletry items in the same plastic bag through multiple airports, without issue. I come in with the same package I leave with. At Stansted, apparently, the other airports aren't following the rules, so I had to use a 'Stansted' plastic bag and repackage all my toiletry items. There was a young lady in tears as security was throwing out lotions and other such nonsense. What a waste of time and money. I would use another airport, if location (Gatwick) and flights (London City) were more convenient.