London Stansted Airport

Designed to inconvenience the passenger at every stage - it is quite simply hopeless and an awful experience. Short stay car park (Red Zone) involves an excessive walk as they have blocked off access to the terminal via the ramp walkway. This means as domestic arrivals are dumped outside the southerly end of the terminal you then have to walk almost the entire length of the terminal to then be able to walk all the way back to the red zone. To cap it all the exit barriers were then broken so it took 30 minutes to exit the car park at 20:30 in the evening having been fleeced for a short stay car park fee. Always pay for fastrack as the security queues are typically diabolical. Then a meandering walk through a smelly, noisy and unecessary retail area that disgorges you into another seated area that requires you to thread your way through seats to get to the gates. My easyJet flight was less than half full both ways and I can understand why. London Stansted is detrimental to the airline and anywhere is a better choice and there are other choices. Make sure you take them.

Avoid this airport at all costs. Security queues too long and slow. Staff unhelpful. Desperate people queue jumping constantly, and other passengers trying to do the right thing missing flights. Long, contrived walk through retail shops prior to getting anywhere near the gates (after an unnecessarily prolonged security screening) made the desperation of passengers, and the overall experience even worse - extremely poor planning at every stage. Whoever designed this airport should hang their head in shame. In the last year I have used multiple terminals at Heathrow and various airports throughout Europe, Australia and Asia, none of these airports (with their vastly larger number of passengers moving through them) had the kinds of problems I experienced at Stansted. I will always pay extra to use other carriers so that I never have to go near this airport again.

I was dreading my trip from Stansted and back again but it wasn't as bad as I had been expecting. I did plan ahead by buying the Fast Track security pass which I think was well worth it as the normal queues looked horrendous. However the much criticised plethora of shops were pleasant to browse around and the overall experience of departure was quite positive. The arrival experience was maybe not quite as good as the well known queues at passport control were in evidence. However they moved reasonably quickly and I was through in about half an hour. The whole experience was not as bad as others have experienced so I considered myself lucky.

I had a very good experience passing through security yesterday enroute to Dublin from London Stansted Airport. One of my trays went for inspection and I must say that the staff on duty yesterday afternoon were extremely courteous, friendly and efficient. I never had any feeling of discomfort despite the slight delay the check of my items caused.

Welcome to the airport with no trolleys. No, not just a few trolleys, I mean no trolleys. Drag your own luggage. Then try to find a machine which accepts card payment for parking. Only at the barrier you discover, and then try to insert the card in the dark. But try to walk out of the terminal when the pedestrian exit is blocked. This airport is like a huge, unfriendly, cluttered warehouse which sees its passengers as an inconvenience. This is an awful place.

The shops flight side looked nice but we had to jog past them. All because it took an inordinate amount of time to clear security. It was comically inefficient (would have been funnier if we hadn't had to jog to make our plane). Both Gatwick and Heathrow focus on getting their security queues under a time threshold and have screens highlighting inefficiency with targets for their staff. Stansted has a shouty man with a stick and surly staff (not a surprise given they are dealing with people agitated at waiting ~20 minutes). I cannot imagine the retail companies who've paid to be flight side can be too happy: lots of people just rushing through the meandering route that's designed to make you want to dwell and shop. Stansted has always been a horrid airport to get to. Now they've made it a horrid airport to be in to boot. Top tip for other travellers, fork out for the priority screening. So you don't have to jog for your flight. Their screening times are probably closer to those of the standard at LGW or LHR. Though the priority lanes had queue too, just shorter ones.

Going through security my tray was stopped which contained my clear bag with liquids my makeup bag a jacket and my handbag. The girl working at the security point asked who owned the bag, when I answered I do her next question was - Is there any sharp objects in the bag to which the answer was no. She then proceeded to root through my bag and empty its contents into the tray "throwing" my mobile in the tray also. After 10 minutes of rooting my liquids were put in a different bag which leaked everywhere and I was given no explanation. It's not my first encounter with ignorant staff and I was very dissatisfied, I often travel to and from London using Stansted airport. When she had finished I was asked to move quickly so the next person could be checked. No thank you for your patience and needless to say all my items were left thrown in the tray where I had to repackage them.

Getting through security was no worse than you might expect but once inside the airport you wind your way through the Duty Free hall, trying to sidestep people milling around wondering whether to buy anything. It gets even worse further up this track, fighting through people going in and out of shops and turning the wrong way out of the shop, past people slumped in the middle of the path, already exhausted. The thought of diverting into one of the shops with your luggage to buy something? No. And when you finally get to the waiting area - high, soulless cavern which is, nevertheless, too small with not enough seats. If you are lucky enough to find a seat in the old days you would leave your family with the bags and have a wander round the various shops and almost certainly buy something but now, the thought of fighting your way back through the bewildered crowds coming in means that you decide that you didn't need anything after all. So you lose out, the shops lose out and your holiday starts on a grim note. The greed of Stansted in squeezing passengers through the shops has made the airport a deeply depressing place and one to avoid if at all possible.

Awful place, avoid at all costs. The whole experience is diabolical, huge queues at check in even if you arrive over 2 hours before the flight. Huge queues at security next, overcrowding at every stage. First available toilets after 2 hours checking in and passing security are overcrowded and dirty even first thing in the morning. The layout has changed to force you to wind your way past every single shop in the terminal and to do this they have reduced the seating available. Once you reach the seating area you will find it is full and you have to stand. The toilet facilities in this area are the same overcrowded, dirty and more queues. Due to the length of time taken to check in and pass security there was no time to look at any shops or get a drink or some food. On return there was an hour wait for UK/EU passengers at border control with once again inadequate toilet facilities before and even with that wait the bags still weren't available to collect for another 1/2 hour. Overall terrible leaving and terrible coming back too.

The least capable airport in the UK but I'm stuck this time due to the flight going where I need to be. Usually I get away with LTN as the cheap and cheerful and use Birmingham in preference to this place. STN is stuck in the late eighties for service and experience. It starts with queuing to pay to be dropped off by car despite an unearthly early flight out, obviously we would have stayed in one of the two (for a whole airport) higher than London city priced hotels if possible but they were booked out. Enter the terminal (converted warehouse design) and the signage is pretty clear - join an interminable queue straight away for 30-5 0minutes as there are no seats available anyway, thereafter things start to go downhill somewhat. Will continue to avoid STN wherever possible, just a thought why on earth did they get that M11 connection if no cars are welcome? (actually I know, it's to provide the highest priced no-alternative parking at an airport in the UK)