London Stansted Airport (IATA: STN) is London's third airport. It's to the north-east of London, halfway to Cambridge, so about 30 miles or 50 km from each city. It's the fourth-busiest airport in the United Kingdom, with 27 million passengers in 2018. It's mostly used by budget carriers to European destinations, predominantly Ryanair.
The airport is owned by MAG, Manchester Airport Group, who also own East Midlands as well as Manchester Airport.
Stansted is excellent for direct low-cost flights across Europe, especially away from the capitals. For example, from Rome to London there's plenty of choice, but from Bari, Palermo or Turin it would otherwise be difficult to get here without paying three times as much and taking three times longer.
Stansted is okay for travel to central London. It's further out and pricier to reach than Heathrow or Gatwick, see transport options below. Nevertheless there are frequent buses and trains south to London, and north to Cambridge, Norwich and the Midlands.
Stansted is poor for:
Stansted is dominated by the low-cost airlines __Ryanair__and EasyJet which have large bases at the airport. Holiday charter airlines TUI and Pegasus also operate at the airport. A few other scheduled carriers fly to European destinations from Stansted and there are a small number of intercontinental flights.
Flights are normally from 06:00 to 23:00; the airport terminal remains open 24/7 but most facilities close overnight. Delayed passengers arriving during the small hours had better assume everything landside will be closed, so use the toilets in the baggage reclaim hall before emerging onto a draughty sidewalk. See transport section below for first & last buses and trains.
Stansted has only one passenger terminal, a single block on a single level which is easy to navigate. Landside, the northeast end (right as you enter) has arrivals, a few shops and cafes, a left luggage and bag-wrap facility, ATMs and currency exchange kiosks, and toilets. The central area is check-in. The southwest end is departure security gates, security fast-track costs £7. Then you enter the airside retail mall which snakes through to the airside concourse, see below for cafes there. Automated trams serve the two satellite departure areas for Gates 1-19 and 20-39.
The railway & bus stations 📍 are down the ramps just outside the terminal.
Train is quickest. The Stansted Express runs to London Liverpool Street (for mainline, suburban and Underground trains) every 15 mins, taking 50 mins. Trains run between 06:00 and 00:30 and also stop at Stansted Mountfichet, Bishop's Stortford, Harlow and Tottenham Hale (also on the Underground). Single tickets are £18, open returns valid one month are £30; online advance fares can be as low as £7. The Oyster card is not accepted.
For destinations east of the centre (e.g. Stratford), north (Finsbury Park, King's Cross and Euston), and Victoria, it may be cheaper and quicker to change at Tottenham Hale for the Underground Victoria Line. Consider buying an Oyster card there, and see London#GetAround.
Buses by National Express are half the price, serve more city-centre locations direct, and run 24 hours so they're the best option for a very early flight. They can take much longer due to traffic, but at 05:00 that won't be a problem. Their routes are:
Buses by Airport Bus Express have similar prices and travel times. They run 06:00-02:00 and their routes are:
Taxis and minicabs to central London may take up to two hours. Stansted Airport Cars are based in arrivals and charge £100 per car to central London. It's usually better to take a train to the station nearest your destination, then pick up a taxi there.
To Heathrow: National Express run a direct bus, hourly, taking 90 mins to LHR Terminals 1, 2 & 3, single fare £25.
Otherwise you have to travel into central London by train, cross the city by Underground then travel out again. Reckon the best part of three hours.
To Gatwick: take the Stansted Express to Tottenham Hale, then Underground to Kings Cross St Pancras, then a southbound train for Brighton via Gatwick.
Arriva CrossCountry trains run hourly to Birmingham New Street via Cambridge, Ely, Peterborough (for trains north, e.g. to Leeds, York and Newcastle) and Leicester. Cambridge also has Greater Anglia trains, so that makes two per hour.
National Express buses run directly to Luton, Coventry, Birmingham, Norwich, Ipswich, Southend, Nottingham, Cardiff and Bath.
Local buses run to Stansted Mountfitchet, Bishop's Stortford, Saffron Walden, Chelmsford, Braintree and Harlow.
By car: All the major car rental companies have desks at the airport. For fuel there is a BP near the Mid-stay car park and a Shell at the motorway service station, but it's cheaper at Tesco on the west side of the Bishop's Stortford ring road. Driving back to the airport, use Junction 8 of M11. This comes to the turn-off for Long-stay parking, then you briefly join A120 east (so it will feel like you've overshot the airport) then exit towards Mid-stay, the terminal, and car rental lots.
Landside is as uncomfortable as they can make it. The café seating (by Arrivals) is okay but the others are sharp benches, the kind they put in bus shelters to deter dossers, uncomfortable after 5-10 mins and few of them. The railway station downstairs is also cramped and draughty. Try the bus station adjacent which has a proper waiting room with seats, toilets and café. But it's small, and any general transport disruption will soon make it congested. There isn't really anywhere to stroll outdoors: the area immediately outside the terminal is a busy drop-off with smoking zones, and the access roads are ratty highways with no sidewalk. There's a covered walkway to the airport hotel with a grassy embankment if you're desperate.
Airside is the "Escape Lounge", between Coast-to-Coast and Pret, £25 for a relaxing area with complimentary food, drink and wifi. It's open daily 04:00-20:30. There are no airline lounges at Stansted as there are no full-service airlines here. The seating area for Gates 90-93 downstairs tends to be quiet.
Apart from eating, drinking, shopping, and sitting around there is little to do here. Bring something to occupy yourself, such as a book or smartphone. Wifi is free for 4 hours then £9 for the rest of 24 hours, select network '_stanstedairport' and follow on-screen prompts.
See "Nearby" for places you could visit if you had several hours to kill.
These establishments are open from first flight until last flight unless described otherwise.
Landside: Remember you can't take drinks through security. Outlets (clustered near arrivals) are Pret (24 hours), Burger King and Costa, plus confectionery etc at Spar and WH Smiths.
Airside eateries are in the concourse after you've run the gauntlet of the duty-free strip. In early 2019 these are Cabin (upmarket bar serving wines, cocktails and food), The Camden (breakfasts and pub food), Coast-to-Coast (American diner), Giraffe (restaurant with fast food), Halo ("fizz bar"), Harris + Hoole (24 hours, coffee shop), Itsu (Japanese), James Martin (bakery), Joe & The Juice, Joe's Coffee House, Leon (Mediterranean), Not Always Caviar (baguettes), Pret, Starbucks (24 hours), and The Windmill (JD Wetherspoon's pub).
The areas around the departure gates, in the main building and two satellites, only have a few small convenience outlets.
Don't exchange money at the airport if you can help it; the term "currency exchange" implies that you get something back for whatever you give them, but at Stansted that won't be much. The kiosks (landside & airside) are run by Moneycorp and gouge +/- 30% either side of bank rate for major currencies, e.g. 1.30 Euro > £1 > 70 cents. You're even worse out of pocket on other currencies such as Turkish lira. These are probably the worst rates anywhere in the UK.
Landside there is a WHSmith newsagents and a small Boots chemist.
In the departure lounge there are a number of stores including Hugo Boss, Mulberry, Hamleys and Dixons as well as a large WHSmith. The duty-free store for liquor, tobacco etc is run by Heinemann, you can compare prices in their online catalogue with high street rates.
There's a multi-faith prayer room landside near arrivals, and another airside near the Escape Lounge. Both are open 24 hours and have ritual washing facilities.
In the terminal: They don't mind you waiting hours in the terminal, but they don't like you getting too comfy, and prohibit the use of sleeping-bags or anything that looks like camping. ("Health & Safety!" they cry - the British recite this phrase whenever they're feeling officious and obstructive.) However out of hours there's often a quiet area where you can hunker down, only disturbed every 20 mins by shrill automated announcements or security staff. Airside, the seating area downstairs for Gates 90-93 is often quiet.
Airport hotels: Two hotels are adjacent to the terminal, a two-minute walk.
Two others are next to the Mid-stay car park a mile southwest at Bassingbourne roundabout. There's also a McDonald's, Starbucks, an M&S convenience store and a filling station here. These hotels are reached by a shuttle-bus, £3 per trip, but you can use the free Mid-stay car park bus, getting on and off at the passenger drop-off area just beyond the car park exit barriers. Or you can walk from the terminal, but it's a dreary ratty road without a proper sidewalk.
Within ten minutes drive are a couple of dozen mid-range places geared to airport users. They may offer deals on extended parking and transfers to the terminal.
Are you sure? For Ryanair this is a hub and they can stand-up aircraft and crews if they see that a delay is going to embroil them in grief and compensation. Your departure posted as 3 hours late may suddenly go to a boarding call. You can probably only risk leaving the airport for a general shut-down, or an incoming turnaround by some other airline that hasn't even left Malta yet. Check that flight's progress online (e.g. departure board of the airport of origin) and work out Plans B and C for if your departure time suddenly comes forward, or goes back even further because the crew have timed out on their hours.
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