Recent experience of early morning flight from Stansted?

[Boosterquery]

Would be grateful to hear of recent experiences of early morning flights from Stansted. Is there chaos there making it necessary to turn up more than 2 hours in advance of scheduled departure time, or do you think 2 hours in advance will be fine? Flight is with Ryanair.

Not early morning, but flew in and out of Stansted with Ryanair last week and it was all very smooth. But that was pre-checked in and just hand luggage - don’t know what bag drop off queue was like.

I had pre-booked car parking which came with a fast track security pass. Looking at the queue we dodged, I would have thought it would have been through in 20-25 minutes.

Three hours goes faster than you would think if you shop, have a coffee, breakfast and a loo trip!

Even before Covid and staff shortages, I always aimed for 2.5 hours at Stansted if I had to check in luggage. It’s a very hit-and-miss airport.

If travelling on hand luggage I’d go 2 hours. Do you need to drop off bags or do visa checks OP?

Thanks @partystress . That's very helpful.

its ok at present but if you going very early...a lot of the ireland flights all seem to leave at same time around 7am so that is a busy slot.

Thanks @GrandSlamFinalee . Will probably just take hand luggage and check in online in advance. However, flight is to Spain, and I believe they still require proof of Covid vaccination (or negative test if not vaccinated). Do you know at what point that gets checked, ie whether it gives rise to extra queuing time?

Went through at 5 am yesterday

Took 15minutes to get through security

Thanks all for v useful information. Flight is around 7am. Bearing in mind the "hit and miss" comment, it sounds like it would be best to allow at least 2.5 hours, possibly 3.

It gets checked at either the check in counter or before boarding at the gate. You can definitely go straight through security, I’ve done it multiple times over the past two years.

Thanks @GrandSlamFinalee . That's useful to know.

Long queues but continuously moving. We planned to arrive 3 hrs before our flight and had over 2 post-security. About 5am