London Stansted Airport is the third busiest airport in the United Kingdom, behind Heathrow and Gatwick, and served almost 20 million passengers in 2009. Passenger numbers peaked at 24million in 2007, but ever since then they have been reducing – Stansted is now an excellent alternative to Heathrow airport as there are generally less queues. Currently it only has one main terminal that serves all the passengers wishing to travel there, but it does have three miniature satellite terminals to further sub-divide the passengers and provider quicker boarding; a fourth one is currently under construction and due to be finished shortly. A very large number of airline operators provide flights to and from this airport, with Ryanair, Thompson Airways and EasyJet providing the largest number of destinations all at very low prices.

With it being so busy, the airport has invested heavily to provide excellent transport links with other parts of the country. A railway, boarded from underneath the main terminal building at Stansted Airports offers services every hour to various locations around the country, including Cambridge, Leicester and the Midlands. There is also a service running to London every 15 minutes. It is very easy to rent a car from these stations, or indeed to catch another train to reach your ultimate destination. There are also a wide variety of buses that run frequently to various points in London. The buses are somewhat cheaper than the rail option but the extra speed gained with taking the train is definitely lost.