Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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For more regular updates, visit Tom's Britain, a new website about things to do in Britain.


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23 September 2013

Visit Stansted Airport

Your author is off on a holiday for the next week, and experience suggests that rather than trying to cobble together a few rushed blog posts before heading off, it's probably best just to have some days off. As such, this website will not be updated for the duration. So for today, let's look at everyone's second least-favourite London airport, Stansted. Now the fourth-busiest airport in the UK, Stansted Airport was opened during the Second World War to be used by the RAF and the USA Air Force.


The airport was taken on by the Ministry of Civil Aviation in 1949, and though it was mooted for return to military use, this never happened, with it taken over by the British Airports Authority in the 1960s, with a terminal building opening in 1969 and further expansion between 1988 and 1991, and again from 2007 to 2009. In 2012 it saw more than 17 million passengers, and this year it was sold to the Manchester Airports Group after BAA was told to sell it by the Competition Commission.

For more, see http://www.stanstedairport.com/about-us/stansted-facts-and-figures/airport-history



^Picture © bjaglin used under a Creative Commons license^

2 comments:

  1. Vanessa V.24 September 2013 at 14:00

    Hello Tom,

    I just discovered your blog today and I am a fan! I really loved it! And I started my own blog about London recently so it was an inspiration to read your posts!

    Best regards,
    Vanessa.

    If you want to take a look at my blog, please...
    Dear London...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Patty O'Heater10 October 2013 at 09:22

    I was there in 2012 - I think all 17 million passengers arrived the same day. It took half an hour to get from the God-forsaken hole where we were dumped off the plane to passport control. I didn't think we were going to get off the train at passport control because the area was so packed, but we managed to push people out of the way and get on the platform. This was where the queues started. It took almost an hour for us to get the bovine stupidity, dumb insolence and rudeness we have come to know and love from Border Farce. Only about one third of the desks were manned. By the time we got to baggage reclaim - some two hours after the plane had landed - there was still no sign of our luggage. What a wonderful welcome to England! I will never fly to Stansted again and advise all to avoid it like the plague.

    ReplyDelete

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