London Stansted (STN) > Reviews > The 3rd Airport.

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Advantages:	Great new airport
Disadvantages:	underused and undersold

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you live North of London or East of London, you used to have a real job getting to a decent enough airport to take you on your holidays every year.
Sure you do have Luton but its not exactly international class.
So when the plans to extend Stansted into London's "3rd Airport" were announced, I was quite happy.
It was going to be goodbye to the arduous trips around the M25 to Gatwick and Heathrow and instead, a 25 minute drive through pleasant country roads to my nearest airport.
And what a Joy it is to fly from.
Its nowhere near as big as Heathrow or Gatwick but it is much more modern and geared towards todays modern traveller.
Its all under one roof at the moment too which makes travelling around the airport much easier.
The Check in desks are straight ahear of you as you enter the main terminal.
The terminal has actually swopped sides of the runway since the buiding that was being used since the late 60's is now used as offices on the opposite side.
Check in, drop off your bags and then you can eat at the various restaurants (Burger King and TGI Fridays to name a couple) or perhaps sample a pint in the pub.
Then its through a very informal looking customs. Not like the "end of the earth" type atmosphere that you get at Gatwick or Heathrow.
The duty free area is next.
While it is compact compared to its 2 bigger brothers, stansted has a wide range of goods and services here.
Then, its off to the satellites. This is where you catch the planes from.
There are 2 in use at Stansted for passengers and one for Cargo.
You donw walk there along long conveyor belts like at other airports but get transported in the latest luxury transport....
A shuttle train.
Talking of trains, transport to and from the airport is excellent with an express service leaving Liverpool St every 15 mins.
Car parking is not a problem yet but I imagine it could become one in years to come as it is always busy now.
With increased traffic, god help the attendants!
You can get to all 4 corners of the globe from Stansted afte recently getting its transatlantic licence back.
So if its a week in Ibiza or summer in the Seychelles, Stansted is your departure airport in the East and North of London.