Tips on security on flying from Stansted airport : Simon Perry: Schemes, dreams & trivia

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Tips on security on flying from Stansted airport

5th September 2006 by Simon

I _had_ to fly out of the UK last week, to get to Berlin for IFA.

I’m not a fan of waiting around, ie. queueing and with the ’security’ measures still in place, I wasn’t looking forward to it.

I looked at the BAA site and the only information that they passed on was “It will take longer.” No clue as to how long tat might be. If you want to know, which clearly you do, you’re forced to to dial their 0870 number, hold for 10 minutes to get the 10 second answer, “allow two hours.” (What a rip off).

Checking in to the flight was really easy. Normalness has returned to carry-on luggage, with a laptop bag not being a problem.

“How long will it take to get through the secuirty?” I hopefully asked. It varies came the reply, with the additonal advice of looking at all of the queues before joining one. Great advice it was too, as it turned out.

The first one I came across stretched the full depth of the airport, and half of its width. Walking along it felt like a joke. Asking the people at the front of the queue, how long they’d been there, I found “only about half an hour.”

Giving the other side a go, I found one of a similar length.

Surprisingly the middle queue, the one you would have thought would have been longest was the shortest. Even with this one, initially moving pretty fast, it took 50 minutes to get through to the other side.

The only advantage to this is that if you do arrive in time, it actually make traveling quite relaxing. I normally get there late and dash through. Having said that, I’d much prefer not having to go through with it.

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