Planes overhead in E17
Waltham Forest, London. All 1,531 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 E17. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 171 a day; of its 1,531 postcodes, 249 at 100+, 1,282 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 98 a day; of its 1,531 postcodes, 1,485 at 10 to 99, 46 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 2 a day; of its 1,531 postcodes, 1,531 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| E17 038 postcodes | 38 at 10 to 99 | 38 at 10 to 99 | 38 under 10 |
| E17 3221 postcodes | 221 at 10 to 99 | 220 at 10 to 991 under 10 | 221 under 10 |
| E17 4224 postcodes | 224 at 10 to 99 | 179 at 10 to 9945 under 10 | 224 under 10 |
| E17 5225 postcodes | 225 at 10 to 99 | 225 at 10 to 99 | 225 under 10 |
| E17 6245 postcodes | 2 at 100+243 at 10 to 99 | 245 at 10 to 99 | 245 under 10 |
| E17 7182 postcodes | 69 at 100+113 at 10 to 99 | 182 at 10 to 99 | 182 under 10 |
| E17 8191 postcodes | 174 at 100+17 at 10 to 99 | 191 at 10 to 99 | 191 under 10 |
| E17 9205 postcodes | 4 at 100+201 at 10 to 99 | 205 at 10 to 99 | 205 under 10 |
Also counted here: London City, at most 1 a day over any of its postcodes; Stansted, at most 1 a day over any of its postcodes.
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 E17
The councils
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.