Planes overhead in BR3
Bromley, Lewisham and Croydon, London. All 1,125 of its postcodes measured, January to August 2026.
From Heathrow
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way Heathrow flies, and that decides how many pass over BR3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 169 a day; of its 1,125 postcodes, 819 at 100+, 306 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 110 a day; of its 1,125 postcodes, 413 at 100+, 712 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 79 a day; of its 1,125 postcodes, 1,123 at 10 to 99, 1 on an edge, 1 under 10
The table counts the postcodes of each sector by how many planes pass over them a day: 100 or more, 10 to 99, or under 10.
| Sector | Flying west56% of days | Both ways15% of days | Flying east29% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| BR3 1243 postcodes | 55 at 100+188 at 10 to 99 | 1 at 100+242 at 10 to 99 | 243 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 3282 postcodes | 282 at 100+ | 217 at 100+65 at 10 to 99 | 280 at 10 to 991 on an edge1 under 10 |
| BR3 4273 postcodes | 173 at 100+100 at 10 to 99 | 83 at 100+190 at 10 to 99 | 273 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 5185 postcodes | 167 at 100+18 at 10 to 99 | 10 at 100+175 at 10 to 99 | 185 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 6124 postcodes | 124 at 100+ | 84 at 100+40 at 10 to 99 | 124 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 918 postcodes | 18 at 100+ | 18 at 100+ | 18 at 10 to 99 |
On an edge: the postcode is on the edge of a flight path, where a few metres decide whether a plane counts as overhead, and the fewest and the most within 100 m of it fall in different bands.
What counts as overhead
Overhead means more than halfway up the sky (48.5 degrees or more) and below 7,000 ft, the CAA's definition of an overflight (CAP 1498). A day counts as one way when 80% of its flights used that way.
Near BR3
SE20 SE26 SE25 BR1 BR4 SE6 BR2 SE19
The councils
- Bromley: noise and liveability score
- Lewisham: noise and liveability score
- Croydon: noise and liveability score
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Heathrow. Flight tracks: adsb.lol (ODbL 1.0); Weather at each airport: Iowa Environmental Mesonet; Ground heights: Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right; Postcode positions: ONS National Statistics Postcode Lookup (OGL). Licence: Open Database License (ODbL) 1.0.