London Stansted Airport

Arrived around 00.30 hrs on a Tuesday morning. Very few flight arrivals so expecting a quick entry to meet waiting friend. Initially a scrum to get into either the "chipped passport" or the "unchipped passport" queue. Impossible to judge as so crowded. No difference in number of people queuing at both. I opted for the "chipped passport" queue - Bad Move. So suffered at the long queue for around 1.5 hours, yes, 90 minutes at 1 am. Many of the automatic gates appeared to reject most passports and only limited help available, mainly overworked staff telling people with rejected passports to queue for the manned booths. What has happened to the Stansted that was a success story only a few years back. This problem has been getting worse for some time now. This is an airport fixated on making money from departing travellers, forcing them to run the gauntlet of "duty free" concessions before reaching the area where there is a shortage of seats.

The security gates were a disaster. Only three x-ray machines working making lots of people late. When people who were pushed for time (after queuing for nearly an hour) asked for help, they were told to go back out and pay for express security. Stansted used to be such a good airport, now it is a nightmare. All they want to do is rip you off. After getting through I went to the new James Martin restaurant and had the worst bacon roll I have had.

Not a pleasant experience either from or to this airport now, they seem to have lost control. Much money spent, but upgraded shopping experience is misplaced, you need to look after your customers better. Over crowded, poor staff training, delays and very expensive. The perfect mix for forcing customers away, but you now already know this. Where does the buck stop?

I travelled in transit through Stansted - it was hell and I have never experienced anything like it before. Arrived a good few hours before our flight and when Ryanair eventually put up our check in desk details it was 110 mins before our flight. It then took us 90 mins to get through check in and passport control, a mad dash to get our plane and just about missed our flight - and it was the same on our return with chaos being stuck in a corridor for ages to get through passport control. Never again through this airport.

I last travelled from this airport some years ago and I remember I was quite satisfied with the facilities and the throughput. Fast forward to this June and the difference is quite marked. Long, long queue at our pre-booked short stay parking, valuable time wasted driving round and round until a space miraculously appeared. Airport itself packed, queues everywhere. And then a delay of an hour on our flight which incurred a late arrival charge at our destination. On our return we were met with massive queues at passport control. Clearly Stansted fails miserably to cope with the demands made upon it. As another commentator has indicated, arrive at least a good 3 hours before your flight.

A total disaster of an airport that cannot handle the amount of business they have. Far too much has been spent on the new Duty Free passage and not enough on Restaurants and Bars. Border control going out is better than it once was, but still poor compared to all the others around London. The worst thing though is Border Control on arrivals, total and utter chaos and considering that people are paying to use the facilities its a national disgrace. 90 mins is now the norm according to our cab driver. They should be ashamed at themselves.

Total farce - arrived 2hrs before departure. Had to dash to catch plane. You ask about airport shopping - it would have been nice to get the chance! Allow 3 hours to board. Allow same to arrive.

Arrived just after midnight 28 June from Mallorca and faced a huge crowd, not even a queue, for passport control. People overflowed from the long, long taped queueing lines into a vast scrum. It appeared there were two options, e-passport control or standard but no information as to which was quicker. There was no public address to offer apologies, provide information, nothing. Eventually, having chosen e-passport control, we got through in 55 minutes. To add a little icing to the cake, the Jetparks / Long Stay car park transit bus did not pull up where the signs indicated. Standard Airport management and UK Border Agency should be shot. Their job is managing capacity and surely know how many passengers / flights are landing. Lack of information. Absolutely no excuse.

This was my first time at Stansted since their refurbishment. I can now say that what used to be a very good small airport, is now the worse airport I have ever been to. Security takes for ever and once you are through security, you are then forced to shuffle through a tiny aisle with hundreds of other people because there are now duty free shops on every side. Once into the main part of the airport you are faced with hundreds of people looking for somewhere to sit. I was travelling at 6am on a Friday morning and it was wall to wall with stressed out passengers. I will avoid this airport at all costs.

Hideous experience. Checked in online and opted for baggage drop. Arrived two hours before our flight was due and very poorly and misinformed despite having shown our boarding passes that we had to queue for check in. Horrendous queues there and then again in security. As a result we missed our flight - the first time ever in our lives! No last calls for our names, no advice or cooperation when we informed security that our flight was leaving in 20 minutes. Rebooked flights at great expense to leave 10 hours later in the day - stayed within the airport. Tried to rebook car hire on computers in airport hall at great expense and huge frustration computers keys missing and system ridiculously slow! Internet connection on our phones (different providers) was poor and wholly inadequate. On our return we queued for 1hr 45mins in passport control. We cannot believe how shabby a system of queuing can make anything other than a very bad impression on arriving to England for visitors. Unacceptable and unnecessary attitude observed from staff and a lack of information regarding why there was such a back log and how long the average time of queuing would be didn't help either. We now know never to travel to and or from Stansted again - absolutely the first and last time ever.