London Stansted Airport Reviews 

Rude and obnoxious security staff. Lack of seats and chargers. Overall a very poor customer experience

The staff was incredibly rude and yelled at us for not understanding their sped-up british english. Ruined the jurney!

I love using Stansted Airport and stay overnight at the Radisson using Holiday Extras for Meet and Greet. However, this will be the last time I use Holiday Extras as owing to their website not recognising my email address, even though I have used them for years, I was charged twice for a booking next March 2026. Although they have informed me 3 times my refund is on its way they now say the booking has expired. That is because they are looking at an old booking when the one they charged me twice for is not until March 26! They have done nothing but delay everything they can, meanwhile I am out of pocket £268:28. You need some advice? Think twice about
HOLIDAY EXTRAS
David Francis

You only need to do the long walk from the blue car park to see they like to cut corners at Stansted airport. Half arsed covered walkways with sporadic trolleys attached to the supports that doesn't even extend all the way. Terrible lighting of signage and many lights out of use in this dingy lit entrance.. they do like cutting corners.

It doesn't take much to let you know its a half arsed airport when the ceiling is covered in decades worth of filth and detritus and it's dark and gloomy.

Security was fast but the duty free trail and lack of seating airside shows it's greed central.

The airport piers are dated and old. With bent ceiling tiles and loos with mops and devices to capture the leaking toilets and sinks.

This airport wants to be a good airport but it's all about money by the owners.

I wanted to use the free dropoff. It is on the website but there is no link to it and, other than saying it is in the mid-stay terminal, there are no details of how to use it. It just takes you to an area where you have to pay.
The fee of £7 at the airport is large so I do not want to use it.

Waiting in security for 2hrs+ this evening due to slow security and badly managed logistics. This airport should be studied in schools on how not to run security queues.

The entire area after the boardingpass scanners was completely full and overcrowded. What does Stansted do? They close the three open security lanes, keeping only two. When asking the staff how long time he thought it would take the response was ”around 40 min”. Good thing our flight was not leaving for another 2hrs and 15 minutes then… or so we thought, because getting through security and waiting in line took 2hrs and 5 minutes (!) and after going through the body scanners there was a havoc with the X-ray machines making ALL bags go to the ”extra assessment” line.

We had to run through the airport (which is built like a track and field course meeting a mirror-funny-house, with glass walls and maze-like halls) and arrived just in time with a terrible dry cough and sweat drenched to the core. The lady at the gate looked at those of us who managed and made EVERYONE push their hand luggage bags in the Ryanair ”bag-check” before boarding. I wonder how many of my fellow passengers this night that had to sleep on the airport…

I’ve travelled with work in Europe and USA for the past 12 years and seen my fair share of dubious airports and frustrating behavior. This is the worst airport experience in my life. Close it up, or staff up and enable your staff (!) the airport is obviously not fit for purpose.

The parking fees at this airport are outrageous. Not even Heathrow and Gatwick fees for short stay parking are this high. £18.00 for 1 hr. Don't park in the Blue Car park, it's the furthest one away from where you land!

Stansted Airport is a hell hole. The terminal is too small for the number of passengers. The airport owners do not care, because they know as long as the budget airlines keep offering cheap flights from Stansted people will put up with the cramped, rude staff and the rip off expensive poorly signed drop and collect car fees.

I had a terrible experience at stanstead airport today. I asked for an alternative to the radiation scanning machine and a team leader was called. She said she would go get another lady to take me in the room to search. The team leader read out all the conditions and then the young girl searched me. I asked her if she should be doing it there and she said yes and I asked the team leader and she said she didn’t. She said I’ve just watched her and she didn’t. I didn’t have a witness so it would be my word against these two women. I will be putting in a request for a dsar and to see if that was captured on camera or it was recorded as I think their staff need to be trained properly when dealing with us in that way. I came away so upset. The team leader asked if I was happy with the search I said was you and she said yes and I said well that’s on your conscience and she walked away. I questioned it and she could have handled it better and maybe noticed that the staff might need some better training.

Is absolutely terrible if u have connect flight, u still have to leave airport and go all the security and everything, same as u just arrive. It was absolutely shocking service, amount of people had stress, some people miss the flight, and we have more then 2 hours to connect to our another flight, no information or anything where to go with connect flights
, I have to stop and ask somebody two times. And security more u telling them u missing flight more slow they get. I hope I don't have to go to this airport again!!!!

Less organised than a piss-up in a pigsty - and just as clean. Personel were brash and on occasion just downright rude. Yelling at travellers for YOUR poor organisational abilities isnt going to make it better. I understand people get frustrated when standing in LONG queues, but those people shouldn't be the staff. Needed my shoes scanned, staff tells me to put my first foot up, then hits my knee and tells me "NO, your left foot". If you want my left foot up first, say my left foot first, not first foot - which bloody foot is the first one? And on top of that, physical contact is absolutely not required, desired or necessary!

This was just one female member of staff so seems unfair to review poorly. However, this woman seems power crazy. She berated a man loudly & sarcastically ahead of me for not pushing his tray over to her .. very demeaning. "If you leave that there it'll stay there, there's no one going to move it for you ! " So I asked her should we keep fluids & electronics in our bags (there was no signage to say) . I've travelled through a few airports lately so airports differ. She seemed irritated by my question & stared me out .. she was middle aged .. prob a tad younger than me & preparing for a confrontation. Then said ' leave them in' .. I then asked should I take my (flat) boots off, I had been asked to remove them on the outbound flight .. she really didn't want any questions. She told me, irritatedly, to keep them on. Then I was pulled afterwards to scan them 🙄. I had a bulky coat which I'd put into the tray & she shouted at a man in front to make sure his was secure & then told me to check mine as well. I decided to take out another tray to add it & my belt as I had already quite a bit in the tray.. no .. that wouldn't do either (other times they don't allow overloading trays!) .. she took the coat & put it under my bag .. we just couldn't do anything right. The rest of the staff were perfectly lovely but it only takes one to create an atmosphere. It wasn't overly busy either ..

We travel a lot but have never experienced more ignorant, rude and horrible security staff at any airport. As a paying customer I don’t take it well when I am shouted at and treated like we were today.
Rude, obnoxious, ignorant, aggressive horrible security staff.
Go get a bit of training and learn how to treat your customers with a little bit of respect.

45 minutes to get from the boarding card machine to the end of security due to queues and broken machines….

I accidentally drove into the Express drop-off zone at Stansted and exited within 60 seconds - the parking system logged me in and out. The signage is confusing and the lane layout makes it easy to end up in the wrong area. I was charged £7 for a genuine mistake with no stopping. If airports want to be fair, they should either extend a small grace period for accidental entries or improve signage so drivers don’t get caught out.

Really bad - won't fly out of here again. Testing the fire alarms means the lifts won't work apparently - you'll have to carry your suitcase up 4 flights of stairs. 20 kilos, on my own, no assistance. I would still be there now if a kind passenger hadn't helped me. Security is an absolute farce - half the bags get pulled for no good reason - the scanner just misses them - and then only 3 security people moving at the speed of rheumatic snails apparently unaware anyone might have a plane to catch. Lots of shopping etc but no time to use any of it by the time you finally got through chaotic security. Absolutely dreadful - avoid like the plague

The security checkpoint stuff treated me and my family horribly, dreadfully. My parents are elderly and my mum disabled. They were so so rude, I can't believe this is allowed. My mother had a sling and was told to remove it and go back to the end of the queue and do it all over again. I asked for help to one of the staff and she didn't even look at me and said: Move to the side. Where's the humanity? Why is this happening ? Treat us with respect, please! I will try to avoid at all costs going through this cemetery again. I've got autism and this has left me scarred. NEVER AGAIN.

Our flight was 1 hour delayed. We landed at 1 AM in the morning to just found out that we need to wait over 45 minutes for passport check!!! Kids were crying and lying on the floor, parents carrying their kids in their arms as kids were sleeping. What a poor service!!!!

Horrific Experience at London Stansted Airport
I have travelled extensively around the world, but I have never experienced the level of chaos and mismanagement I witnessed at Stansted Airport. The entire security process is a nightmare — overcrowded, disorganised, and handled by shockingly rude staff.
It genuinely feels as though they intentionally create bottlenecks at the security gates to push travellers into purchasing the £15 fast-track pass. I was delayed due to traffic and had no choice but to buy one, yet even after paying for the so-called “fast track”, the staff refused to let me through! As a result, I missed my flight.
The behaviour of the security personnel was unprofessional, hostile, and completely lacking in empathy. Many of them act less like airport staff and more like enforcers — treating passengers as though we’re inmates rather than paying travellers. There’s no sense of assistance or accountability, only frustration and intimidation.
This was a truly disheartening experience. Stansted seriously needs to review its crowd management, staff training, and the ethics behind its “fast track” policy. For an international hub, this level of service is unacceptable.

You arrive 2 hours early and spend that time in a long line. They funnel everyone into the same tiny area . This place is absolute mess the line for security is massive and not moving. Staff are clueless and swan around talking into radios with no sense of urgency . Gate closes in 35 mins and still have to clear security and walk there. Real chance we could miss our flight 😡 Absolute shambles of an airport