Stansted Airport has one main passenger terminal, near a village called Stansted Mountfitchet. There are three passenger satellites in which the departure gates are situated, two connected to the main terminal by an air-bridge and the other by the Stansted Airport Transit System people mover. A fourth satellite is now under construction and hopes to be finished by mid 2010. The terminal facilities include several bureaux de change, luggage services, shops, restaurants and bars as well as internet access. Car hire and taxis can also be arranged from within the terminal building.

The terminal building was designed by Foster Associates with input from the structural engineer Peter Rice and features a “floating” roof, supported by a space frame of inverted-pyramid roof trusses, creating the impression of a stylised swan in flight. The base of each truss structure is a “utility pillar”, which provides indirect illumination and is the location for air-conditioning, water, telecommunications, and electrical outlets. The layout of the airport is designed to provide an unobstructed flow for passengers to arrive at the short-stay car park, move through the check-in hall, go through security and on to the departure gates all on the same level. From 1997 to 2007 Stansted saw rapid expansion of passenger numbers on the back of the boom in low cost air travel, peaking at 24 million passengers in the 12 months to October 2007, but since then passenger numbers have been in decline. Passengers in the 12 months to December 2009 totalled just under 20 million.