London Stansted Airport

This was my first time using Stansted. Parking was straightforward and a shuttle bus came after less than 5 minutes. Security was busy but the line was moving quickly. I got through in under 15 minutes. The departure area is nothing more than a shopping mall and rather pricey food outlets. Ryanair say that the gate closes 30 minutes before the flight but until 30 minutes beforehand you will not know which gate to go to then you will have to run. On my return I was through immigration in 20 minutes using the electronic scanner. A car park shuttle bus was waiting. All in all far better than I was expecting.

Beware if you are making a connection from a flight outside the UK to another flight. There is no way of doing this without leaving arrivals and going through security again (which could take quite a long time) and walking for miles. This means the time taken could be anything from two and a half hours upwards. Surely there could be a way for connecting without starting again as there is in any other airport I have passed through. People arriving from abroad and not knowing this could easily miss their ongoing flights.

Another trip to the uncivilised hole that is Stansted Airport! If you are tired and agitated after getting to the airport parking and getting a transfer to the Terminal and passing through security you are insulted by being forced to walk what seems forever through a parade of shops selling overpriced goods. You can't avoid it - you've to go through it. Once past that you eventually come out into the concourse where the masses are herded together to be preyed upon by the next set of vultures selling even more expensive poor value food and drink. If you make good time you wait and wait until your airline puts up the gate you are to go to - usually with Ryanair five or ten minutes before the gate is scheduled to close. All you want to do is make your way to the gate and sit and relax but you can't do it. Instead you have to sit if you are lucky to get a seat in the dreadful old fashioned cattle pen provided by whoever runs the airport anxiously looking at the departure screen.

We travel regularly and use Stansted as it is the nearest airport to us. The passport control on returning to the UK is ridiculous we now have a electronic passport and the queue is smaller but even then it is rare that all the booths are working. The queue for the normal passport which you have to use if you have children with you is horrendous I would estimate that it is usually a 2hour wait and often 3 hours. Stansted have got to do something about this. On the last occasion airport staff were not even letting people into the area as there were too many people there and they were holding them back in the corridors. There is no assistance for older travellers who have to stand and wait I did mention this once to the passport control as there was a very old lady in front of us they said if they asked they would have been sent to the front of the queue but many are visiting. Please Stansted get your act together. I actually think that that may people having to wait so long especially with children may be a health and safety issue.

Embarrassing for a country like England having to wait over an hour in passport control queues! Landed from Turin just after 11 am and it was total disaster. A member of staff rudely shouting orders young children and elderly waiting in line tired and upset only 4 people checking passports when there are 18 posts. Don't they know how many planes land? Are they all on their elevenses break? It was a Wednesday: what it is like at weekends half term or holiday periods I don't even want to imagine. Total disgrace.

This isn't a developed country airport is more like a third world airport. The flight arrived on time from Lisbon on Saturday 25/04/2015 at 11.30 pm and then the nightmare started took over 1 hour and 30 minutes to reach the passport control. Hundreds of people queuing too many people for a tiny and close space.

Use a different airport if at all possible. Queuing times are horrendous. For example it took well over an hour to go through passport control. I do not understand why the airport management just does not look at how any other airport in the world is run and just copy what they do. There are plenty of staff milling around the gantries while one person processes hundreds of passports and visas etc. If a person in front has some kind of dodgy ID or visa it holds the queue up for the hundreds of people behind. The airport is also dirty. Normally I wouldn't mind about this so much as generally airports are just functional and I try to spend as little time in them as possible - but in my recent experience I spent far longer in some queue or other than the flight took.

What a diabolical mess. Whoever is in charge of Stansted should be ashamed. It used to be a great experience using Stansted now it's a massive chore. The refurbishment has been very poorly thought out and nothing flows. Security is pitiful. Sunday 26th April 11.45pm was total chaos. Over 1 hour to get through passport control is not acceptable. There were people who missed the last train because of your incompetence. The electronic gates take far too long there aren't enough of them and they weren't all operational. Lack of power sockets lack of seating and being herded though the shops to get to the gates is ridiculous. I always used to choose Stansted over Heathrow or Gatwick. I won't be in future. You need to start looking at these reviews and taking some action!

Visiting Stansted airport was again a very disappointing experience. The new shops don't seem an improvement possibly a waste of money which could have been spent on keeping the airport cleaner and to provide more staff to assist people. The toilets were unclean on returning the walkways were dirty with rubbish everywhere. To get through customs people with new passports were directed to massive queues with only a few gates open. Two people were on hand but they just stood pointing and gave no assistance to people when their passport wouldn't scam! They only offered help to non - English speakers! No trolleys were available to carry luggage or staff anywhere to be seen! Such a disappointment considering the service we received at the small airport at Fuerteventura! Management should consider visiting this airport and Lucca in Malta to compare. Stansted is unfriendly dirty and a disgrace to Britain.

I think Stansted is a good airport overall. There are improvements being done to the shops and cafe which are already making the experience more to the level expected. As much as I'd rather not have to walk through duty free I get it. The security heading out of the UK is much improved especially with the new multi-person conveyor belts. They have them in Edinburgh airport and it makes the process far quicker. However regarding Arrivals security its a mess - as with other reviews mine is s typical story. Landed at 12.05am on Sunday 26th April and on arrival at passport control the hall was completely full. As always to the left we could hear the e-passport gates siren going off as a failed scan happened and to the right the half full line for non-EU arrivals. For us EU and UK citizens it took 20 minutes just to get from the off-loading area of the shuttle train to the point of being in the queue. It then took just shy of an hour to get through security others were tweeting the same so it wasn't just my bad timing. Half way through one of the UK Border staff wandered off (break time?) and 3 gathered around a desk with an issue with a passenger. I overheard people talking about just pushing through and maybe if we all start jeering. If this took place anywhere else there'd be a near riot being an airport people are contained let's hope peoples frustration remains verbal. The double whammy for anyone trying to travel late at night is the Stansted Express train finishes at 12.30am so the 3 or 4 plane loads of passengers have no chance of using it. Good job the coaches are available. But be warned they are NOT family friendly and the queue to buy tickets is often long with just 2 staff to serve customers. Your option from there is a taxi from inside the airport. But be prepared to pay around £100 to get to central London. I travel through Stansted almost every week and the story is pretty much the same. A good airport well served with facilities outbound security and transport ruined by an atrocious arrivals security. a) Get more staff checking passports (set a time limit from arrival to processing and publish if you hit/miss it) b) increase EU/UK staff and reduce non-EU staff due to volume of arrivals c) let families through in a priority lane you then switch to other passengers no one will mind people already usher families with crying babies through anyway.