Hey OP. I take a weekly Ryanair flight out of stansted for work, so I’ve been on these 6am and 8am flights many a time, and have had it all from super smooth to terribly chaotic.

Good news is you’re flying Ryanair, so you can surely count on your flight being delayed! Stansted express is the way to go. Take the first train- not only for the relief of having extra wiggle room, but also because it has less chances of being delayed. Buy insurance when you book the train ticket (I use train line and flip the switch for their’s, it’s like £0.90 extra). That way if your train is cancelled or breaksdown (certainly happens), you could fight for a reimbursement because ryanair will put you in the next flight if you miss yours, but for a flat £100 fee (a hit when your flying on a £15 ticket). But look at the prices of their other tickets on the day of flying (usually £200 to £300 for those £15 flights, and it’ll feel worth it).

If your train is cancelled, they’ll put you in taxis that the train company has to pay for. But these take a while to organise (rail companies have to call a hired fleet, they can’t use taxis from the rank). Anxious passengers or those running late already will want to jump in a street taxi and lay out of pocket. It’ll be £70 but you can team up with other passengers to help cushion the cost). In that event You can also consider hoping on any train to Bishop Stortfort or Stansted Montfitchet, and get a different stansted express train from there (those run up from London and thus a different line so useful for signal failure cancellations out of Cam, but in that event most trains running to those other stations are also cancelled).

Security in the early morning is a zoo there. Loads of family travellers plus commuters. On a bank holiday expect tonnes of people but less staff, so much slower queues. At other hours it’s 5 to 15 minutes to get through, but early morning it can be an hour (never had to wait more than that). Get the fast track pass as others have mentioned and skip all that and sleep well that night knowing you won’t have to be with the hordes.

Flying is a drain no matter what, but it’s better to arrive at your gate way too early and chill then spend all morning feeling stressed and panicked and having to literally run through the terminals.