What Stansted needs is an owner who can reduce landing fees, just enough in order to make Stansted a strong competitor to the other London airports (which is still probably a lot since BAA have been hugely over-charging there). You can't really go majorly wrong with a few small infrastructural improvements and a few new bits and peices will help the airport sustain it's value-for-money factor and customer satisfaction levels.
The most important and urgent infrastructural development by far is improved rail links with trains leaving every 10 minutes rather than 15 and/or even more importantly, to get to Liverpool Street in 30 or 35 minutes to make them competitive to the Gatwick Express and rail services from Luton Airport Parkway to the capital. Stansted has got the advantage of being connected to Liverpool Street, walking distance from the Gherkin, Tower 42 etc. and even Tower Bridge can be walked to. It's probably the most central out of Paddington (from Heathrow), Victoria (from Gatwick) and St. Pancras (from Luton) with better underground and particularly DLR connections throughout London with Bank only down the road, rather than just being super close to just the touristy bits round Westminster and Embankment.
Last edited by FRatSTN; 16th Oct 2012 at 19:17.