Planes overhead in IG3
Redbridge, London. All 491 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 IG3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 20 a day; of its 491 postcodes, 28 at 10 to 99, 463 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 9 a day; of its 491 postcodes, 491 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): under 1 a day at all 491 of its postcodes
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| IG3 8240 postcodes | 240 under 10 | 240 under 10 | 240 under 10 |
| IG3 9251 postcodes | 28 at 10 to 99223 under 10 | 251 under 10 | 251 under 10 |
From London City
Planes land and take off into the wind, so the weather decides which way London City flies, and that decides how many pass over IG3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (47% of days): up to 7 a day; of its 491 postcodes, 491 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (18% of days): up to 9 a day; of its 491 postcodes, 491 under 10
- On a day it flies east (35% of days): up to 17 a day; of its 491 postcodes, 68 at 10 to 99, 39 on an edge, 384 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 west47% of days | Both ways18% of days | Flying east35% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| IG3 8240 postcodes | 240 under 10 | 240 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 9920 on an edge217 under 10 |
| IG3 9251 postcodes | 251 under 10 | 251 under 10 | 65 at 10 to 9919 on an edge167 under 10 |
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 IG3
IG2 IG1 RM6 IG11 RM9 E12 IG6 IG4
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for Heathrow and London City. 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.