At One Place

What airport is STN?

STN is
London Stansted Airport
London, United Kingdom

Why the code is STN

STaNsted.

The airport authority or a contemporaneous record states this directly.

The airport

IATA code
STN
ICAO code
EGSS
Airport
London Stansted Airport
City
London, United Kingdom
Code origin
Documented

Stansted is 42 miles from central London, further than either Heathrow or Gatwick, and is the base for Ryanair's UK operation. Its Norman Foster terminal put all the services underground so the roof could be a single uninterrupted plane of daylight, a design widely copied since.

The other code, EGSS

Every airport has two codes. The three-letter IATA code, STN, is the one on your boarding pass and your luggage tag, and it is assigned for commercial use. The four-letter ICAO code, EGSS, is the one pilots and controllers use, and it is assigned geographically: the first letter or two identify the region, so every airport in the same part of the world shares a prefix. That is why EGSS looks nothing like STN.

Common questions

What airport is STN?
London Stansted Airport, in London, United Kingdom.
Why is London's airport called STN?
STaNsted.
What is the difference between STN and EGSS?
STN is the IATA code, used commercially — tickets, timetables, luggage tags. EGSS is the ICAO code, used operationally by pilots and air traffic control, and assigned geographically by region.

Related pages

Sources

  1. OurAirports — OurAirports (Public domain)

How these figures are compiled and checked