ABSTRACT
Summer should be a season for celebration, yet on a Saturday morning in August at Britain's fastest-growing airport it is a mix of drudgery, gloom and histrionics. At Stansted Airport, the only people who are smiling are the retailers, cashing in on the most captive of markets: thousands of passengers whose delayed flights are being blamed on air traffic control delays. They have nothing to do but eat, drink and shop. Hordes of fractious children are being dragged around the seemingly endless glass and steel corridors by despairing parents. 'It's like herding cats', complains one frowning father to his stressed partner as they try to steer their brood towards gate 45.
