Tips when flying from London Stanstead Airport with a baby

These are my tips when flying from London Stanstead Airport to Poland with my husband and baby to visit family.

London Stanstead has been rated seventeenth out of twenty-four by a Which? customer survey of the best to worst airports in the UK in 2024¹. As a frequent visitor to London Stanstead needing to pick and drop off family at London Stanstead as well as fly from Stanstead, I would agree with this statistic.

In my experience, London Stanstead can be the cheapest airport to fly from or is the only option to get to your destination. Therefore, the tips below are meant to help prepare you for your journey as much as possible!

Luggage when flying from London Stanstead Airport with a baby

1. Luggage: Do a weight check on your luggage at home before travelling to the airport. This will help in not needing to shuffle luggage between bags or, in the worst case, leave something behind. A hand scale for luggage can be purchased at Primark or Amazon.
2. All carry-on and check-in luggage should be in bags that have wheels – this will assist in manoeuvring around the airport and to and from the plane. These are the carry-on bags that are on wheels that I recommend and use when flying – we’ve had ours for the last 2 years with no issues.
3. Use a waist bag or a bag that can be slung across your body to hold your important documents and items. These items can include passports, plane tickets, wallets and mobile phones. The worst thing is looking in a big bag that is hard to access when you are travelling with a child and in an airport that is chaotic at best!

Preparing to fly with your baby

1. If your baby is formula fed, I suggest carrying ready to use liquid formula milk. We found this to work best as we could open a carton of ready to use milk, pour it into a clean bottle and give it to our baby no matter where we were.
2. Take your child’s birth certificate with you when you travel in case you are asked for this.
3. If you are travelling on Ryanair and want to book an extra seat for your baby’s car seat, you will need to purchase the ticket online then call the airline to ensure the seat is booked in the name of your child. This is because when booking flights online, they only allow you to book an extra seat for a child that is over two years old.
4. Dress your baby in a onesie instead of a two piece outfit. This will help when needing to change poopy diapers if there is a blow out.
5. Carry toys for your baby to keep them occupied while they are in their car seat. What worked well for us are toys that dangled from the car seat handle.

Travel to and from London Stanstead airport with a baby

1. For international flights, I suggest arriving at the airport four to five hours before departure. This will help to reduce the worry about the things you can’t control at Stanstead airport. For example, the delay in buses that are meant to be every 20 minutes between the terminal and mid-stay parking. Or unexpectedly needing to change your baby’s diaper.
2. We always parked our car at the mid-stay car parking when picking up or dropping off at London Stanstead as the parking fees where the least in this car park. The fee for the first 2 hours is £5 and over 2 hours is £40. In order to avoid going over 2 hours, I suggest getting on the bus to the terminal when the person arriving confirms they have passed security, gotten their bags and are exiting to the arrivals area. Accordingly, this will allow you to stay with your car and exit the parking as many times as needed to avoid paying the high fee.

At London Stanstead airport when travelling with a baby

1. Change your baby’s diaper in the airport before boarding the plane – not on the plane. I recommend this despite there being a dedicated baby changing stall so two people can go in to change the baby. The baby changing faculties are in a stall in the men and women’s toilets respectively. Therefore only one parent is able to go and change the baby’s nappy. For us, this did not work since as my son is a wriggler and two sets of hands were needed to ensure his safety. So I ended going into the men’s bathroom with my husband and son in order to change my son’s diaper. Given the limited space on the airplane toilet, I doubt my husband and I would have been able to fit.
2. The security line at Stanstead on the Sunday we left was very busy! We waited at least half an hour for security to scan our carry-on items. This is because they tested our baby’s ready to use liquid formula milk. Consequently, I suggest paying for the fast track service as it will reduce your stress on travel day.
3. On arrival at London Stanstead airport from Poland, we departed the plane using stairs that led onto the tarmac. Thereafter, there was another set of stairs leading to the main terminal building. This made travelling with a stroller very difficult. There were also no elevators – just escalators in the terminal building. For this reason, I suggest wearing your baby in a carrier so your hands are free to carry the stroller.

Using a Car seat on the plane for your baby

On Ryanair, there is no consensus on whether the Doona car seat and stroller can be used during the flight. On our flight to Poland, we were able to use the Doona but on the return flight, we were not. Therefore beware of this if you have an airplane compatible car seat and fly on Ryanair.

References

1 – Which? survey results for the best and wort airports in the UK for 2024