Stansted arrival: how long to get through and out of the airport?

Voyager2002

As the subject: does anyone know Stansted arrivals have been performing since Easter? I shall land there on a Saturday afternoon (about 4.30, end of May) and need to catch a train that leaves about an hour later. Is the arrivals 'fast track' likely to make any difference?

Alan_Bowen

There are 6 arrivals, all Ryanair, in the 30 minutes between 1600 and 1630. The end of May is the start of half term, so the airport will be bustling if not the arrivals. It is possible but I would suggest it unlikely that you would make a train 30 minutes later. hopefully, there is another one later? I must admit after my last visit, I vowed never to use the airport again, so I cannot comment on the effectiveness of fast track arrivals

soolin

Not my airport of choice at all as even in normal times we find it slow and laborious to get in or out. There are also reports in the papers today about Stansted being over capacity with long queues , and even though that’s mainly departures it may well have a knock on effect on arrivals. Personally I’d go for a later train or at least buy a flexible-ticket if possible 

400ixl

Hand or checked luggage?

Not used Stansted since the pandemic, but it used to be pretty quick on arrivals if only having hand luggage. You could get through the arrivals terminal and out the other side in 15-30 minutes, but if checked luggage, it could be a 30 minute wait just for that.

It can also depend on what flight you are on and where it parks. It can park off ramp and you need to wait to be bussed into the arrivals hall which can take a while.

An hour with hand luggage possibly, with checked luggage odd would be lower.

Voyager2002

Thank you for the replies, even though that is not what I wanted to hear.

Some specifics: landing at 16.45; train I need leaves at 17.42. Sadly it connects with the last departure of the day (from Waterloo or Clapham Junction).
I have reserved a seat near the front of the 'plane and have hand baggage only. Anything else I can do?

At least if the airport is busy there should be plenty of staff on duty, and at the start of half-term most passengers will be leaving rather than arriving.

400ixl

The train station is close to the arrivals hall which gives you at least a fighting chance. With hand luggage only it will be possible sometimes if it all goes smoothly.

It will all depend on which gate you come into as some can be a 15 minute trudge (and train) back or a bus ride back to the arrivals hall.

As I say though this was pre-pandemic so it may have changed.

CKhalvashi

Alan_Bowen said:

There are 6 arrivals, all Ryanair, in the 30 minutes between 1600 and 1630. The end of May is the start of half term, so the airport will be bustling if not the arrivals. It is possible but I would suggest it unlikely that you would make a train 30 minutes later. hopefully, there is another one later? I must admit after my last visit, I vowed never to use the airport again, so I cannot comment on the effectiveness of fast track arrivals

From experience (with a 20:00 arrival in similar situation to this), around 30 minutes from landing plus however long it took to have a chat with a contact who was working at the Ukraine desk. That was parking on a Sat 2 domestic stand, so needing to be transported to immigration by bus, which is the worst possible scenario for arrivals.

If you're going into Sat 1 (anything but Ryanair), expect similar times, Sat 3 a little quicker.

steve808

I flew into Stansted from Rome on Wed 27th Apr at around 14:00. I used the self service passport scanners, the queue wasn't bad at all, only took abou 5-10 mins to get through.

tightauldgit

I think it's going to be an absolute lottery to be honest. Last time I went through STN was at the end of Feb on a Saturday afternoon and it took about 2 hours to get through because the immigration line was ridiculous. In fairness though I wasn't in the self-service passport scanner line as i had my daughter with me.

Voyager2002

tightauldgit said:

I think it's going to be an absolute lottery to be honest. Last time I went through STN was at the end of Feb on a Saturday afternoon and it took about 2 hours to get through because the immigration line was ridiculous. In fairness though I wasn't in the self-service passport scanner line as i had my daughter with me.

I won the lottery!

In case anyone is interested... things got off to a bad start when ATC delayed take-off for about 20 minutes. Despite this, landing time was close to that scheduled (there was no trumpet blast so I assume it was not precisely on time). The queue for passport control was absurdly long, but moving rapidly : I felt like a hamster on a wheel as I ran through the many loops leading to the self-service passport scanners.

Soon after clearing Immigration I checked the time: 17.11. So I had almost twenty minutes to spare...

400ixl

Glad it worked out for you