Stansted is one of London's airports, about thirty miles northeast of the city in the county of Essex. It is the base for budget airlines flying around Europe, so British people associate it with cheap short flights and early mornings rather than long-haul travel. London has several airports and they are not interchangeable: Heathrow is the big international one to the west, Gatwick is south, London City is small and close to the financial district, and Stansted is the northeast one. Because they are far apart, which airport you fly into changes your whole journey — Stansted is roughly an hour from central London by train. In writing you will see it as Stansted or London Stansted Airport, and its code is STN. British speakers say STAN-sted, and the name is not pronounced the way its spelling might suggest to a learner.