London Stansted Airport

I have used this airport a number of times as it is handy to a friend's house in Essex. I have good and bad reflections on it. Rail connections are fantastic. Security staff have always been extremely pleasant - on my last visit I was subject to a body scan and manual search and the guy that did it was very helpful and talked me through each stage of the process. What I dislike is the compact departures lounge - very tricky to move around without getting in someone's way - hopefully this will improve when the construction work is completed. I would welcome an airside fast food outlet couldn't find anywhere last time for a quick bite to eat and ended up buying a sandwich and taking it onto the plane. Would be happy to use this airport when travelling to somewhere close by but would most likely choose a different London airport if going to the city itself.

Used this airport in mid October. Got a taxi in from Nearby Bishops Stortford cost £17 Two years ago it cost £5. Used one of the private lounges which gave us use of fast-track through security. I was through security in under one minute (During the early morning rush at 5.00am). Coming back used the auto booths at passport control and was again through in under a minute only delay was a 15 min wait at baggage reclaim for our bags to arrive. All in all was pleased particularly as I live in Norfolk which is only one hours drive away so really want this airport to work for me.

Nightmare. 7 Oct 9.30 am. Had to wait 20 mins for the long stay shuttle. Driver sat texting instead of driving. Queues right back into the foyer to even get to security. Only one channel open. Huge delays and many people missed flights.£110 per person to rebook with Ryanair is just profiteering. At least 10 minutes of fast walking up and down escalators to reach departure gates. Avoid this airport.

I have just waited an hour for my luggage to come through at stansted. No announcements to explain what was going on. I spoke to someone over the phone at the luggage enquiries desk (no staff available) who explained it was due to too many flights coming in at once. Do they not know the scheduled arrivals? In the meantime my taxi had to come in and out of the short stay car park being charged £2 a time. Why should I have to pick up that bill! Will avoid this airport in future.

I don't know which Stansted airport some of the reviewers have flown to and from but we flew in on Monday 30th September arriving at mid day and were through passport control collected our luggage and out of the airport terminal in under an hour of landing.

I was surprised having read the very bad reviews here to have a totally trouble-free experience in both directions. I flew out late morning 18 Sep and returned mid afternoon 24 Sep. Had booked valet parking with Aardvark (£52) you just drive up the ramp and stop right outside departures. Short 8 min wait at Ryanair bag drop. Less than 15 min wait for security with cheerful and pleasant staff. Shops/food etc quite satisfactory and clean toilets airside. On return flight landed punctually and queue for passport control took 10 mins. Bags waiting already when we got to belt. Very short walk down to short term car park where Aardvark rep was waiting with car. Drove on to M25 less than 35mins after landing. Well done Stansted! A good experience.

Last Monday 23/9/2013 was nightmare. Just arrived from Tallinn and there were passport check queues of more than 50 minutes. This airport is overcrowded. Too many flights at the same time this airport needs a second terminal.

Inbound passport control last Monday was dreadful. Hundreds of people backed up in corridors leading to the passport hall. Eventually spotted the new e-passport gates (they don't seem to be directing people to these) and thought I'd give it a try. Very long queues here too. They had 4 working machines. But they also had one person checking the back of the queue to make sure you had the right kind of passport one man supervising the general running of the machines (as in supermarket self-checkouts) and 3 people behind a desk overseeing all the photo- recognition images and the general output from the machines. So instead of 5 staff heading 5 passport queues they had 5 staff heading one very long queue for 4 passport machines. If you need 5 people to oversee 4 gates because you don't trust the technology then don't use it! Shockingly poor management and an entirely unapologetic tone in all the public announcements. A horrible experience.

It is a disgrace that the new owners of Stansted have managed to turn what was a well run pleasant to use airport into a nightmare. Until recently if you arrived by taxi or were dropped off by a friend it was outside the doors to the booking in desks. Now you have to pay to be dropped off at a ridiculously crowded area and push your cases up a steep ramp which is very unpleasant when you get to your 70s. And if the traffic queues are long you have to pay more for the pleasure of sitting in the queue to be dropped off. Coming back is just as bad controlling a trolley going down a steep ramp is very unpleasant and then you have the problem of locating your lift back home - a mobile phone is essential to find out where to go. After getting to the check in area for some reason or other the time to check in or drop your bags off takes a lot longer despite arriving 3 or more hours before take off. Then as has been mentioned by others there is the very long delays (almost an hour on our last trip) getting through security with rude staff constantly trying to push you through. Again a horrible experience when you are travelling with a family from 4 years old to the over 70s - alternatively of course you could pay (a rip off £35 in our case) to use the priority security gates. As has been mentioned in other posts coming back the queues for passport control are very long and the last thing you want to encounter after a long flight with very tired children. We won't be using Stansted again until they have made substantial improvements - despite being 40 miles further to Gatwick the time to get from home to the plane will be a lot less and much less stressful.

The ever growing delays at passport control 50 minutes last Saturday when returning home completely spoil any trip. Four out of five trips this year have suffered from excessive delay and the hot airless conditions of the corridors where passengers are held and the lack of information is completely unacceptable. I have asked the border staff why there is a delays and get different answers each time with the common thread that there is a complete lack of effective management of the function. Given known schedules and passenger numbers it shouldn't be too difficult to deploy the number of border staff necessary to keep delays to a minimum (on Saturday many of the desks were not manned). If possible I will avoid using this airport until this issue is resolved.