Tens of thousands of passengers at Stansted Airport faced chaos on Wednesday after a fire in a lounge forced the closure of the security search area. The blaze broke out in the Escape Lounge, part of the main departures area, at 3.30am. No injuries were reported, and the airport confirmed the fire was “quickly extinguished by the Airport Fire Service.”
However, the smoke led to the evacuation of the area near the lounge, with no further passengers allowed through security. Passengers were moved to the terminal forecourt and remained outside for around two hours. During this time, many thousands of travellers who would normally have been cleared through security were left stranded, and some planes departed empty or only partially loaded.
At 6.30am, the airport announced that the departure lounge had reopened and passengers were being processed through security, though waiting times were longer than usual. Flights were not suspended, and both departures and arrivals were operating, but some flights faced delays. Passengers were advised to check with their airlines.
Jenny Bardsley and her party arrived at the airport at 4.15am for a 7.25am Ryanair flight to Sofia. After the evacuation, they reached the gate at 7.05am only to be told it had closed five minutes earlier. A Ryanair spokesperson said passengers who missed their flight due to the security closure would be re-accommodated on the next available flight free of charge. Air passengers’ rights rules do not cover delays caused by airport issues.
Jet2, the second-largest operator at Stansted, dispatched three flights to Greek islands—Heraklion, Santorini and Lesbos—with no passengers on board. The airline said it had “no alternative but to cancel” due to the fire. Many flights were heavily delayed, with a Jet2 departure to Palma de Mallorca delayed by up to three hours, causing knock-on delays throughout the day.
Stansted, the UK’s fourth-busiest airport, had 84,000 passengers booked to travel on Wednesday. The chaos was compounded by the cancellation of 10 Stansted Express trains to and from London due to a signal failure between the airport and Bishop’s Stortford, which closed the line for over two hours from 5.30am. CrossCountry trains serving Cambridge and Birmingham were also cancelled.
