Sat 3 is a great example of what BAA thought STN should be and what it really became. Two big satellites accesed via a one way expensive railway line, all gates with airbridges and attached to a world class beautiful terminal. Later, Sat 3 was added minus the airbridges and no train and when reality set in that the future was Ryanair, the lower level extension was built cheap and nasty. The original Sat 3 is actually fine upstairs, but the downstairs bit is awful. The reality is that any business case for further new builds will look more like the grotty extension than Sat 1. Michael O'Leary described BAA's Stansted pricing structure as an excuse to build "Taj Mahal terminals", i.e. quite nice really.

I think Sat 3 for the most part is absolutely fine. It’s clean and functional, and better or at least no worse than LCC areas at many other major airports.

Am I wrong in thinking the shabby end bit of Sat 3 was originally a remote satellite gate area accessed by bus? Built sometime around 2000?

Sat 2
 

I agree. Satellite 3 is pretty vile, with the lower level gates at the far end being even worse. Compared to the other two satellites, seating appears pretty sparse, and I think they're (at least pre-Covid) in the process of remodelling the gate areas with bus-shelter style bench seating?

As regards satellite 2, it's a shame that this isn't used more often by other carriers, as the place always seems to be pretty near empty, aside from a few FR flights that use it. Also agree that it is looking very tired now and in need of a refurbishment (doesn't appear to have been updated since it was first built). Are there any plans to refurbish it in the long term?

Correct, passengers would go to the gate area “The APV” just under and in front of the transit system and be bussed to “the shed” as we used to call it, it was a stand alone boarding pen.

It's a shame they aren't used more often. Someone on the thread mentioned that Air Berlin used them fairly frequently back in the 2000s when they had a sizeable presence at STN. Plus, didn't American Airlines use them during 2007-8 when they ran STN-JFK? Do you think MAG will repair them in the long run? It almost seems pointless having them if they won't be fixed/updated.

SAT2 has 3 operational airbridges to use. Gate 37, Gate 30/88 and Gate 32/87. During the first and second lockdowns when Stansted only had SAT2 operational the airbridges at Gate 30/88 and Gate 32/87 where used regular by most airlines operating at that time. Turkish Airlines, Pegasus and Air Moldova to name a few. Titan would often use these gates for its flights to Loudres due to the amount of wheelchairs on board making it easier to gain access via the ramp to gates 81-88.
In terms of what has been mentioned of SAT3 in my opinion the gate 40-50 area is good. It’s functional and works. It has had some work to it in recent times with new toilets and touch up work. Also MAG where in the process of remodelling all gates in this area. If you fly through these new styled gates are 43,48 and 50. But due to money constraints this has been put on hold.
The TTS dose in fact run to SAT3 though a station was never fitted out to the satellite. It’s is just a huge unfitted out area sitting below the satellite. The tunnels and track do actually run past SAT3 to where a fourth satellite would be built.
SAT3 was built with a purpose and that was to me cheap and easy to use for the airline that requested for it Ryanair. BAA original plan for Stansted was for it to have 4 satellite buildings all built the same and linked to the terminal by the TTS expect SAT2 to allow for domestic flights like it does.

I'm not very hopeful on a Stansted - Baia Mare route. HiSky announced in the autumn last year they would fly from Baia Mare to Paris Beauvais from April 2022. That route has just been cancelled.
That leaves Baia Mare with just routes to Bergamo and Stansted each 2x weekly. Not really enough for a base. This would work only as W routes, which struggles given HiSky have just closed all routes from Targu Mures, and their route between Bergamo and Baia Mare is already a W of an aircraft based in Chisinau

FRA base closure; STN-FRA cancelled
 

Looks like FR are set to cancel STN-FRA permanently from the end of March in line with their FRA base closure in response to higher airport charges. A shame :/ Is any other airline likely to replace FR on this route from STN?

Link to press release notes: https://corporate.ryanair.com/news/r...ase/?market=en

Eurowings or Easy might give it a try.

Why would Eurowings want to fly London-Frankfurt and compete with its parent company, Lufthansa, by cannibalising LH's business traffic on LCY/LHR-FRA ? Ryanair may not be acceptable for business travel in the corporate world.... but plenty of companies will put employees on EW if it saves them money

easyJet who closed their Stansted base last year and don’t currently operate any flights to Frankfurt.

Eurowings who’s only flight from Frankfurt is Pristina or flights operated by new brand Eurowings Discover who only fly to package holiday style destinations?

At a real push maybe Lufthansa might give it a go but that’s extremely unlikely with them already offering around 10 flights a day to Heathrow and the City come the summer schedule.

Will STN-HHN rise from the dead with FR?

If you want to get from Stansted to somewhere near-ish Frankfurt while saving the pennies, you would probably be better off flying to Cologne - at least CGN's in-terminal train station is well connected to the German rail system. Even at its height of popularity around 2009, Hahn was a complete pain for land transport if you didn't have a car in Germany. Hahn is only worth it if you *really* need to keep the air fare to the absolute minimum possible - i.e. are prepared to crawl b*ll*ck naked over broken glass

This isn’t true - I flew to Hahn for somewhere that wasn’t Frankfurt. There were excellent coach connections to surrounding areas, also to Luxembourg. Hahn actually has a decent catchment of its own quite remote from Frankfurt and Cologne-Bonn. Its probably the best option for reasonably notable places like Koblenz and Trier as well as several lesser but fairly well-off communities in between.

Could Jet2, STN's second largest airline do it? I know they are predominantly leisure/holiday focused at their STN base though, and EZY have recently made clear they have no intentions to reinstate their former STN base. I think its a real shame that MAG have so far failed to attract a good feeder airline such as Lufthansa to FRA or KLM to AMS (even though both served STN in the past many years ago). There is strong potential, given STN's catchment area for such a service and could provide many with an attractive alternative to LHR, and to a lesser extent LGW in business trips/long haul transit via FRA or AMS.

Much of the Essex based business demand and connection traffic is serviced out of LCY where LH Group, associates LG and LO maintain a strong presence , similarly KLC with multiple daily Amsterdam flights. Not to mention BA Cityflyer !

LH isn’t particularly strong from LCY. It’s down to just a FRA service now. LX has begun to grow again. LO is only operating the Vilnius PSO route with WAW and BUD both still suspended.

BACF has also dropped Munich this week but FRA, DUS and BER remain.

I think Eurowings is STN best hope with a DUS or BER route.

FlyPOP A330 9H-PTP to visit its home base (Stansted) at 14:00 local on Friday 14th January.

Thought it was on the Maltese register not Dutch?

Sorry my mistake predictive must have changed it - now corrected