Planes overhead in CR4
Merton, Sutton, Lambeth and Croydon, London. All 911 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 CR4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 96 a day; of its 911 postcodes, 521 at 10 to 99, 390 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 70 a day; of its 911 postcodes, 911 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 151 a day; of its 911 postcodes, 396 at 100+, 389 at 10 to 99, 43 on an edge, 83 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR4 1260 postcodes | 230 at 10 to 9930 under 10 | 260 at 10 to 99 | 54 at 100+206 at 10 to 99 |
| CR4 2184 postcodes | 35 at 10 to 99149 under 10 | 184 at 10 to 99 | 170 at 100+14 at 10 to 99 |
| CR4 3267 postcodes | 69 at 10 to 99198 under 10 | 267 at 10 to 99 | 172 at 100+95 at 10 to 99 |
| CR4 4187 postcodes | 187 at 10 to 99 | 187 at 10 to 99 | 61 at 10 to 9943 on an edge83 under 10 |
| CR4 913 postcodes | 13 under 10 | 13 at 10 to 99 | 13 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.
2 of its postcodes have a position ONS estimates, so their figures may be for a spot a few hundred metres away.
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 CR4
SW16 SW17 SM4 CR7 SW19 SM5 SW12 SM1
The councils
- Merton: noise and liveability score
- Sutton: noise and liveability score
- Lambeth: 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.