Stansted Airport Securirty Procedures

Before departing for the airport please check your flight is on time and confirm what time your airline requires you to check in.

At the airport
Please don't be concerned by the security checks or by the presence of armed police at the airport. This is for your safety and your cooperation with searches would be appreciated. Please make sure your keep your baggage with you at all times and alert staff to any unattended package or bag – abandoned baggage causes security alerts and may be removed and destroyed.

Security control and boarding
To reach the departure lounges you will pass through security control where your boarding card will be inspected and you and your hand luggage screened. You need to remove jackets and coats and place them with your hand luggage (including handbags, cameras, mobile phones, computers, calculators, keys, coins, etc) in trays or on the belt to pass through the x-ray machine. 

Passengers pass through an archway metal detector, which is safe for pregnant women, however, if you have any concerns you can request a hand search. Passengers with pacemakers should request a hand search, and wheelchair users will also have a hand search. Hand searches can take place in a private, screened area for the comfort of our passengers.

Some passengers and/or flights may be selected for additional searches at security control or at the departure gate; including hand searches supported by explosives trace detection equipment. Passengers are chosen at random for these searches – please don't be concerned or offended. We appreciate your cooperation in helping us ensure the safety and security of all passengers.

Packing tips
Do not pack prohibited items in your hand luggage or hold baggage. The following items must not be packed in your hand luggage. They must be placed in your hold baggage. If these items are discovered in your hand luggage they will be confiscated and not returned:

• Scissors (except where both blades are round-ended or less than three centimetres).
• Razor blades (razors that have the blade set into a plastic moulding are allowed, but razors that can be opened and the razor blade removed are prohibited).
• Knives with blades of any length.
• Household cutlery (large spoons/tablespoons are NOT permitted, however small teaspoons are allowed).
• Hypodermic needles (unless required for medical reasons, for which proof will be required).
• Tools (including multi-tools and penknives).
• Catapults.
• Corkscrews.
• Walking/hiking poles.
• Toy/replica guns (metal or plastic).
• Sporting bats.
• Darts.
• Billiard, snooker or pool cues.

For safety reasons, there are a number of items that cannot be taken onto any aircraft, so please do not pack them in any luggage (hand or hold):

• Flammable liquids and solids.
• Oxidisers such as bleaching powders.
• Organic peroxides.
• Tear gas devices or any gas cylinders.
• Infectious substances such as live virus materials.
• Wet-cell car batteries.
• Magnetrons.
• Instruments containing mercury.
• Instruments containing magnets.
• Fireworks.
• Non-safety matches.
• Fire lighters, lighter fuel, paints, thinners.
• Poisons, arsenic, cyanide, weedkiller.
• Radioactive materials, acids, corrosives, alkalis, caustic soda.
• Creosote, quicklime, oiled paper.
• Vehicle fuel system components which have contained fuel.

Connections
On certain routes you may be required to collect your baggage for extra screening before checking in for your connecting flight. Please help us by allowing plenty of time between your flights and following our packing guidelines.