London Stansted Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Really disappointed by the way in which Stansted has changed. Will definitely fly from Heathrow next time. No Wifi, unless you pay, (free doesn't even work). The recharging stations in the waiting area just don't work if you have a USB connection. Passengers desperately looking for a wall socket to recharge. Shockingly bad service for an airport serving London.

✅ Trip Verified |   I used to love stansted airport. Conveniently close to my parents and fast. Sadly I have to emphasise "used to" because year on year its getting worse and now I would rather drive an extra 2hrs from Heathrow and save all the pain. Very long security check queues are now standard and rarely less than 1 or 2hrs. And when you get through the have lots of new shops but absolutely no waiting / seating space. The waiting areas are extremely overwhelmed as are the bars and restaurants. Even staff are grumpy and sometimes rude and the toilets are filthy. Sad state and a poor demonstration of what uk can do. Not a good example. Why have they changed for the worse?

Not Verified | The experience at the airport was a humiliation ritual. We arrived at the airport 2 hours before the gate closure. We didn't have any baggage. There was a 6 lane colossal queue towards a narrow gate that goes towards the hall where security check starts and people were packed like cockroaches getting pressed under a hydraulic pressure. The security check was a complete disaster, engineered to maximise the chances of having a stress-induced stroke and missing your flight. Despite the crowd, security insisted to go through everything single procedure in a slowest possible way. It took us 2 hours to get through the security and when we were over with it, we've tried to reach the gate running like crazy on a result of losing our flight. 15 people lost our same flight and so on with other Ryanair's flight too. We've tried to talk with customer service and to staff and the answer was always the same saying that we had to arrive at least 4 hours earlier, in a really rude way. That was easily the worst airport experience. Understaffed airport and such a bad organisation.

✅ Trip Verified | I am convinced that anyone that has anything bad to say about Stansted is either paid, delusional, or a banker that hasn't got anything positive to say about anything. I've travelled to 56 airports, so, not quite as many as some people, but I've been to enough to say that Stansted is bloody marvelous at what it does. It's simple, clean, efficient, has a beautiful single terminal building, some of the fastest security queues I've ever seen no matter how many people it's trying to push through. Stansted is quite simply, operationally, one of the best ever and I've never had to wait more than 10 minutes departing. Even arrivals moves ridiculously fast, and while sometimes you can wait in a queue that looks lengthy to enter the country, it never takes *that* long. The people working at Stansted know how to move! It's an absolutely marvelous display and it always astounds me whenever I go. It's a well signposted airport, very easy to navigate; the quiet area is fantastic, loads of shops and food options. My only MINOR criticism is that it can sometimes be difficult to find a place to sit down upstairs, but other than that, it's absolutely a class airport.

✅ Trip Verified | Worst airport I have ever experienced mainly because of the staff and the security process. It was incredibly disorganised and the staff were beyond rude. Only allowed one small plastic bag that had to seal. If you couldn’t seal it then just told ‘you’ll have to throw away whatever doesn’t fit’. I’ve used a clear plastic wash bag at many airports recently with no issues (including the return flight of this journey through Budapest) Not Stansted though, and because the small bag they gave me would only half seal I was told with a shrug of shoulders ‘better choose what you’re throwing away’ . My bag then got pushed over for further inspection which took approximately 20 minutes of waiting for it to be my turn. By the time they got to my bag it was re scanned and I was told there was nothing in there that needed checking. She swabbed some of the items in the small plastic bag then proceeded to struggle to seal it up again. To which I said ‘don’t bother I’m transferring it back into the wash bag now’ . She said ‘I’m sorry I have to, it’s silly I know’ So I watched her seal it, pass it over to me, where I unsealed it and put it all back in the original bag. Pettiness to the extreme. Return journey (through Budapest) no issue with plastic wash bag, had a little look through and a lovely chat about our trip. A completely different experience. I feel embarrassed that our country is like this

Not Verified |   I have travelled widely around the world in my 68 years on every continent, and Stansted Airport is about the worst airport. I have travelled through Stansted airport many many times, and it continues to steadily deteriorate, and has now reached the level of a third world country. There are no working jetways at the airport, instead you have to climb down a steep staircase to get out of or into the aircraft. Then once you are out of the aircraft, walk across the apron tarmac, then you have to walk up two flights of steep stairs, with no elevator available. Third world stuff. The last straw on my latest trip was the complete lack of adequate toilet facilities, for men and women. We stopped at a couple of loos, one in the domestic baggage claim area and another in the rental car village, men and women's side. They were all filthy, lacking in toilet paper, and had few if any working stalls. The majority of the stalls were not working at all, i.e. were out of order, and in the rental car village there were no working male stalls at all. The Hertz guy at the rental car village told me there was a male stall somewhere, but I was not able to find it, and there was no signage supporting that man's claim. Overall Horrible, filthy, disgusting, and a total disgrace. Welcome to Britain!

✅ Trip Verified | If you like rude staff who shout at you and give instructions inconsistent with every other international airport, this is the place for you. I was shouted at for using the same clear plastic bag for liquids that I’d used at Gatwick in both July and December 2023. The man threw a tiny bag at me and then turned his back on me. Subsequently my bag was rechecked at security by another man with the type of manners that any parent of a toddler would be embarrassed by. Having endured this, I then discovered that half of the ladies’ toilets were unavailable. During peak travel season? A dreadful experience - I’d last flown from Stansted 10 years ago and am in no hurry to relive this demeaning and inefficient experience.

Not Verified | The entire STN experience was a humiliation ritual. We arrived at the airport 1 hour before the gate closure. We didn't have any baggage. We acquired our boarding passes pretty quickly but the horror started at the security check. There was a 6 lane colossal queue towards a narrow gate that goes towards the hall where security check starts and people were packed like cockroaches getting pressed under a hydraulic pressure. The security check was a complete disaster, engineered to maximise the chances of having a stress-induced stroke and missing your flight. Despite the crowd, security insisted to go through everything single procedure in a slowest possible way. It took us 30 mins to get through the security and when we were over with it, only 10 minutes left for gate closure. Then, a marathon started because of the distance between gates and shopping corridors. We ran through maze-like corridors and made it to our gates exhausted and stressed. That was easily one of my top three worst airport experience.

Not Verified | Good public transport connections via bus/coach. Lack of seats before security. Long wait at security. Airside is a vast overpriced shopping centre. The only reasonably priced food outlet is Wetherspoons. Toilets are disgusting and stink. Floor was covered in urine. Sinks were filthy. Uncomfortable wooden seating in departures area. WiFi is terrible. Only free for an hour then you have to log in again. Overall a badly run overpriced airport that could be better with competent management.

Not Verified | What a filthy dump of an airport. Outbound was bad but the return beggars belief. Toilets are absolutely revolting, floors and carpets look like they've never been cleaned, totally inadequate seating all over the airport, hostile, rude, argumentative ground staff. Arrived early from Pisa with Ryanair and connecting to Glasgow with easyjet. Was not allowed to check in as I was too early. Nowhere to sit, customers in the same boat were sitting all over the filthy floors. Check in staff both at the main bag drop and gate area were downright unpleasant at best. Boarding was total chaos. Customers being held in a freezing cold stairwell without seating for over 30 mins prior to boarding. Everything about this place is lacking. As the owners and management have very little pride in their airport it's high time that the civil aviation authority stepped in and forced them to clean up their act or lose their licence. I'm sure all of the other airports in the region will manage to pick up the slack. What an embarrassment for the country when foreign tourists arrive here and this is their first taste of the UK. Filthy, embarrassing,disgraceful. The owners of this dive should hold their heads in shame. The CAA should be sending inspectors to investigate this rip off and totally unsuitable, badly run outfit and revoke their licence until marked improvements are made.