When you’re flying into the Stansted Airport and need to jet off somewhere else, but on the road this time instead of through the air, you’ll be pleased to know that you can do so right at the airport. There are many different car rental companies at the Stansted Airport, and each one offers great discounts and deals to their customers. At Stansted Airport, rental cars really never have been so cheap!

Avis is one car rental company located at Stansted Airport. Not only does Avis have great rates, but they also have special promotions that put money right back into your pockets! They promise expedited service for busy travelers. And if you don’t have the keys in your hand in three minutes or less, they’ll give you twenty pounds!

Hertz is another car rental company at Stansted Airport that offers very cheap rentals to their customers. The Hertz airport location is associated with Ryanair and so, passengers who use that airline can get an even better deal on their rental car when they choose Hertz at the Stansted Airport.

If you’re traveling outside of the Stansted area, renting a car at the Stansted Airport can be one of the cheapest ways to get where you’re going. And even if you’re staying in Stansted, renting a car is much cheaper than using any of the taxi services, and you can work on your own schedule too!

The Icelandic volcanic eruption of 2010 affected the world. When nature blew tons of ash into the air in Iceland, it was caught by the jet stream and made its way to Europe. Being a danger to high-altitude aircraft, which are always cautious about what enters its engines, airports across Europe were shutdown. This included one of London’s busiest airports- Stansted Airport.

The Stansted Airport and ash problem affected all the airlines that use the airport. Aircraft could not get in or out of the airport for about a week. Two of the impacted airlines are the two largest presences at the airport in EasyJet and Ryanair. However, Ryanair’s presence is massive comparative top any other airline at the airport. They have over a hundred locations they service from the airport. That was a huge amount of passengers stranded in London and elsewhere. Once, cleared the airline did much to get stranded passengers on their way.

Unlike, other smaller United Kingdom airports, much of Stansted’s destinations are international rather than domestic. Many airlines may have just a few flights, but they are international in nature. This means that many people could not simply opt for a ground based option to travel during the volcanic ash shutdown. Some UK airports are regional airports that serve flights to destinations that could be reached by car, bus, rail, or ferry. However, many at Stansted had to wait for flights to resume for the lack any other options. Unfortunately, that also meant crowded aircrafts as everyone was anxious to get on his or her way when flights resumed.

The departures lounge at Stansted Airport boasts all the facilities you would expect from such a large London airport, including a very wide range of shops that stock any product you need. In fact, Stansted actually advertises its departures lounge as a place to have a shopping trip rather than just a means to the end of flying. If you fancy some jewellery then Accessorize and Claire’s are available throughout the day to sell you those extra bits of bling you’ve left at home. There are also designer brands such as Kurt Geiger (for footwear), Hugo Boss (for a whole manner of smart, stylish clothing), Mulberry (for their fine collections of leather products) and Ted Baker (with their large range of stylish clothing and accessories). Stansted departures also has a WHSmith and a WHSmith Books so you can buying some excellent reading material to take on holiday with you. JD Sports also have a concession here should you need to pick up any sportswear before you leave the country. Finally, if pens are your thing that you can find almost any type of pen you could ever desire at The Pen Shop.

Don’t think it’s all clothing though! There are plenty of duty free shops that can sell you alcohol at reduced prices. Spar have a shop here which sells all the basic types of food you might desire. WorldDutyFree, as the name suggests, sells all your general duty free alcohols, as you would expect at any airport. Finally, if you’re looking for souvenirs from the United Kingdom, there is no better place to pick yourself something tacky up from than Glorious Britain located at Stansted!

Driving to the airport is by far the best way to travel. Just think of the benefits of having a car when you are flying out somewhere. The first is obviously the fact that you are in complete control of your journey. One of the most stressful parts of flying out is the fear of arriving late and missing the plane; all the money that is spent on the accommodation and the flights is wasted because you don’t even make the plane! This is completely allayed if you drive yourself to the airport. By being in complete control of your journey you are able to make decisions that will save your holiday; you can change the route if you are running late or if there is bad traffic or road works ahead, you can stop off for snacks or entertainment for the plane and, most importantly, you aren’t stopping every five minutes at a platform miles away from the airport to pick up a load of extra people who look disapprovingly at you because you have such a large bag.

If you drive to the airport it is essential that you are able to park and there is no better place to do this than Stansted airport. With up to date facilities and CCTV coverage your car is possibly safer here than at home. There is no risk of missing your flight because you can’t find a space because there are more than enough spaces for everyone. Do the easy thing and drive!

When you fly out of Stansted airport it is very advisable to stay over the night before. There is nothing worse than getting down to the airport on the day of a flight because it is such a stressful experience! We all know what the road system in Britain is like; quite frankly it can be very hit and miss and you can almost guarantee that there will be an accident or road works, or some other disruptive influence on the roads as you are driving down. Many people have decided to drive down to the airport on the day and, having set off with plenty of time to spare, have still arrived rushing to catch the flight! The net effect of this rushing is that the journey is a very stressful experience and, add to this the nerves that people undoubtedly feel about flying anyway, it doesn’t exactly set you up well for a flight!

The worst thing is that all this stress is unnecessary in the first place! There is no need to drive down on the day of the flight as there are numerous hotels in and around the airport that will accommodate you for a very low price. Of course, you may not want to pay extra but just think about the peace of mind that it gives you; surely worth the extra expense! Pay a little bit for overnight accommodation and you can be completely relaxed with a full stomach, ready for the journey ahead!

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.

British weather is unpredictable at the best of times. It is currently May, only a month until summer, and there has been bitterly cold winds winding around Stansted. However, all is not lost; Stansted is in the southeast of England which will usually get the best of the weather in the UK. It is perfectly possible for there to be torrential rain in the North of the country, yet be a heat wave of 25 degrees Celsius in Stansted (for those of you from warmer countries reading this, yes 25 degrees is classed as hot in the UK!). Taking this week as a prime example, the weather in Manchester in a few days time is predicted to be rainy, yet the weather forecast for Stansted is clear with full sun.

You shouldn’t let the weather dictate your choice of airport however! Nearly all the major airports in the UK have places to go in times of stupendous heat, such as being able to lie down on the grass outside and watch the aeroplanes make vapour trails, or sit in a nice warm cafe getting a hot coffee to help warm up your chilled bones. Cost should also be taken into consideration, especially with the recent recession making people more aware of their financial situation, and it might simply be cheaper to find a different airport, albeit with worse weather conditions. If it is cheaper overall to catch a plane from a rainy Manchester airport this is probably the best option!

Whenever you are flying to an airport it is incredibly important that you know what the weather is like there. Failure to do this will result in the inevitable clothing mistakes that someone always has on the way home; make sure that this isn’t you! The last thing that you want to happen is to jet off from sunny Spain dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, only to arrive back in wet and wild Britain and realise that you really should have put your raincoat in your hand luggage for that eventuality! Many holidays have ended on a very sour note simply because of a failure to check what the weather is like at your destination.

Therefore it is important to know what the weather is like at Stansted airport over this next week; particularly after the recent ash cloud has grounded so many flights that are all now flying extra in order to satisfy the demand. Although there may be a few cloudy moments towards the end of the week, these will be in a minority as the vast majority of the week will be full of sun. The temperatures will range from a low of around 13

When people used to use public transport, the location of Stansted airport was of little consequence. Of course you needed to know where the airport was in relation to the tube (and as such, which part of London it was in) but that didn’t require much detail. Once arriving in London, all you had to do was find a tube map, locate a line that takes you to Stansted airport and leap on one of the trains. The only issue with that was a reliance on public transport which, when you are in a rush, is the last thing that you want to be doing (you can guarantee that the system will conspire to make you miss your flight; it’s bound to happen!). Because of this, an increasing number of people began to drive to the airport, which meant that knowing the exact location of the airport is now essential.

The actual address is of little consequence – it is not essential and the only address you are likely to find is the administrative office. For satellite navigation, all that is required is the postcode, which is CM24 1RW. You can just pop that in as the location and a route will be found very quickly. The main thing to remember, though, is that you don’t want to be going into London itself; Stansted airport is located to the north of the city so if you follow the signs to London then you’re going to end up in the wrong place!