What's Stansted Airport like right now?

[ponderingthisthing]

We're travelling to Europe tomorrow from Stansted. Have heard many horror stories of long queues and cancelled flights at UK airports in the last few days. Does anyone know what the current situation is like at Stansted? How far ahead of the flight do you reckon we need to arrive at the airport for? I had originally planned to get there 2.5 hrs prior to take off, now thinking if we need to get there earlier due to potentially long queues... any advice appreciated! Thanks!

We flew from stansted a few days ago. Things were busy but not ridiculously so. After check in it took us around 30 mins to get through security - this was at 6.30 in the morning so I imagine it gets busier later on.

We arrived 3 hours before our flight which worked fine but I wouldn’t have wanted to leave it any later than that.

Family members flew from Stansted a couple of days ago and found it busy but all functioning well.

Thank you both. That's reassuring. I'll try and get there earlier than originally planned just in case.

Stansted is always busy.
I'm flying out on Sunday afternoon and have booked a train to get me there 5 hours early. I'll just fret otherwise. I'd sooner wander round sniffing perfume for 2 hours than teararse across London panicking an hour or so later.

We breezed through bag drop and security in 30 minutes today, don’t think I’ve ever seen it so quiet!

We flew yesterday evening. Dh was in a flap about queues at airports so we arrived early. It was busy, but efficiently flowing. It meant we had time for an early dinner once wed found some seats in the weather spoons.

@Metalhead

We breezed through bag drop and security in 30 minutes today, don’t think I’ve ever seen it so quiet!

That sounds promising! I guess it varies a lot day to day. How far ahead did you arrive at the airport?

Good news, thanks for updating! Makes me feel less stressy about tomorrow!

ponderingthisthing our flight was at 1pm and we got there just before 10am (mainly because DH was worried about traffic so we allowed extra time for the drive there, but again the roads were not very busy).