London Stansted Airport

Customer Reviews

3 star Skytrax Rating
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Queuing Times 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Staff 12345
Customer rating from 920 reviews
2/10
3 star Skytrax Rating
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7/10

"lot's of shops and restaurants"

(France)

Stansted airport wasn't bad because I didn't have to wait too long. There were lot's of shops and restaurants, but the airport is far too far from London. They have lot's of regular buses that make the connection but that's more money you have to spend just to get to the city.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitJune 2015
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"a serious lack of seating"

(United Kingdom)

Easily the worst airport I have ever traveled through. From the moment you arrive to the security it's just like a free for all. No queue system means that you must fight it out among others to get a spot in the queue. I don't know how many times I was run down by buggies and pushed aside by travellers late for their flights. God love those who are late for flights as they have no hope of making it on time. Because of the layout or lack of rather one must ensure they are at the airport 3 hours before their flight. Once through security you are then reconnected to another bottle neck situation in which you shuffle through to a waste ground where you must await your gate number with every other traveller. There is a serious lack of seating and the seating that is there is scattered with no direct pathway to the surrounding cafes and restaurants. Another big problem is that departure gates are literally shown at the very last minute leaving a mad dash to get to gates along with 100s of others. I flew from gate 44 and once again it was sardines in a tin as we shuffled through to the next area. At one point people on the travelator had nowhere to go once they reached the end and a pile up occurred. I'm a young woman used to living in London and so the crowds don't really bother me as much but I do feel extremely sorry for parents with buggies and elderly travellers who get pushed aside as they can't keep up with others. Stansted please sort yourself out. You should take a leaf out of Gatwick and Heathrows book where everything is so well organised and makes travelling a pleasure. Travelling through stansted however is a nightmare. I will avoid it at all costs in future until they clean their act up.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"easily the UK's worst airport"

(United Kingdom)

Stansted has always been a big negative for me, it looks fabulous, architecturally, but must have been designed by a substandard design team. Layout all wrong with an uncomfortable and money-grabbing shopping area. The walking, the long queues, the inconvenience, poor security system and staff who are generally a bunch of people with very low people skills. Found the security staff surly and rude. Food not good either and woefully inadequate toilet facilities. The confounded train system can break down with dire, bottleneck results that border on terrifying. Never enough passport checkers. Easily the UK's worst airport. A solution would be to enlarge and completely redesign the whole air and land sides, but unfortunately the genie is out of the duty free bottle. Disastrous. I try to avoid at all costs!
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"no customer service ethic"

(United Kingdom)

Can only concur with the overwhelmingly negative reviews I have read on here. There is no customer service ethic whatsoever at this airport. Staff, when you come up against them, are generally surly, no interest in customers as people, only in grabbing as much cash as possible.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"staff are terrible, rude and surly"

(Germany)

I fly weekly from London airports and Stansted is easily the worst. The staff are terrible, rude and surly. Overcrowded, noisy, uncomfortable seating areas, terrible flight information. 10 minute walk / run through a shopping mall. Love the sign after you finally get through security "You're through security welcome to a world of brands". More like welcome to the seventh circle of hell. The whole experience is truly hateful. The only thing Stansted's management seem to be interested in about customer's is their wallets. They couldn't have produced a worse airport experience if they tried. If you have any choice avoid this airport like the plague. Even Luton is better.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"humiliating and dehumanising experience"

(United Kingdom)

Avoid like the plague. First time flying out of Stansted, arrived on time, it starts with being ripped off for £2.50 just to be dropped off, proceeded to check in and then through fast track security, more like an army assault course and completely lacking any humanity, we were constantly shouted at, "belts off, shoes off, keep moving" over and over, it felt like were heading for concentration camps rather than holiday, before finally getting through this humiliating and dehumanising experience. Nothing like the fast track at proper airports like Gatwick or Heathrow, then we were subjected to what I can only described as the Black Brick Road of Retail, a slowly river of people being pushed through a series of shops on both sides, vampire like assistants waiting to spray you with various smells and hook you into their lair. This was early in the morning and half the lights were not operational, half the shops were still being constructed, when we finally emerged into the open there must have been five people to every seat, bodies everywhere, milling about in a twilight makeshift refugee camp. We decided to buy a seat by ordering breakfast in Giraffe which was disastrous, the 'restaurant' obviously not bothered whether their food is edible or not as they are merely in the process of charging £20 for a seat with your food thrown in, I give the manager his due when he used the line "I don't want you to leave angry and hungry", a line I am sure he had used several times that morning as he refunded our money. I decided to go use the toilet, there was a queue of around 50 men waiting to use one of the 9 available toilets, surely there must be a legal requirement to supply a proportion relative to the numbers wishing to use them, 25 minutes later I managed to acquire a seat. Finally the gate was announced and a small, driverless train collected us and delivered us to the plane, only problem is that it was tiny and the crush was reminiscent of every morning on the London Tube, pressed to the sides like cattle heading for the slaughter. The end of our experience was to wait for 35 minutes on a stairway near the runway while the plane was cleaned, choosing to send us down even though there was no where to go. Never ever again, do not use this airport as they genuinely do not care and manage to show it at every step of the way.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerCouple Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"airport is a disaster"

(United Kingdom)

London Stansted Airport is a disaster zone on very many levels. Parking is extortionate - I spent £12 recently to spend 1 hour 5 minutes dropping off and helping a disabled relative recently; this week I spent £75 to valet park for four days near the terminal as I have mobility problems and the disabled parking in (slightly) cheaper parking zones has been deliberately shunted too far away for me to use without difficulty, so I was rather forced into it. Protracted rebuilding aimed at turning Stansted into even more of a shopping mall has degraded the customer experience to something approaching animals being herded. There are few seats or areas where you can experience respite. Even the business lounges are cluttered, dirty and relatively stressful to use. Staff morale appears to be low and it is hardly surprising given the circumstances in which people have to work. The new security area is slow, complicated, has slightly menacing staff who make you feel like a naughty schoolchild, and has a system which forces everyone to manhandle lots of heavy crates full of their things on command. In short, they have taken an amazing Norman Foster building and turned it into a deeply grubby experience that is little short of insulting to its human cargo (for that is what we are to them). The owners and administrators should feel ashamed of how things have evolved.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages N/A
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"only use out of desperation"

(United Kingdom)

Used London Stansted every other week for more than 4 years and now only use out of desperation. Seen it go from efficient customer first airport to grab your money and to hell with customer service. Likewise its time local environmental health checked out so called current male toilet facilities!
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerBusiness
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
1/10

"worse than it ever used to be"

(United Kingdom)

We were in Stansted airport one hour and a half before the fight and finally we missed it. Long check in queues, long security queues and then a long way through all the shopping area that you cannot skip. Definitely, this airport is much worse now than it ever used to be.
Experience At AirportDeparture Only
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerFamily Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Wifi Connectivity 12345
Airport Staff 12345
no
6/10

"only minor queues at security control"

(Norway)

On arrival from Oslo (Torp) Sunday 11th October afternoon there were no queues and I walked straight through passport control. On departure Wednesday 14th late afternoon only minor queues at security control, so I was very pleased on both occasions. My only negative comments are regarding seating capacity in the departure area and prices on some duty free goods. Overall I was very satisfied.
Experience At AirportArrival and Departure
Date VisitOctober 2015
Type Of TravellerSolo Leisure
Queuing Times 12345
Terminal Cleanliness 12345
Terminal Seating 12345
Terminal Signs 12345
Food Beverages 12345
Airport Shopping 12345
Airport Staff 12345
yes