Planes overhead in N3
Barnet, London. All 630 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 N3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 106 a day; of its 630 postcodes, 55 at 100+, 575 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 97 a day; of its 630 postcodes, 630 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 65 a day; of its 630 postcodes, 630 at 10 to 99
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| N3 1229 postcodes | 229 at 10 to 99 | 229 at 10 to 99 | 229 at 10 to 99 |
| N3 2191 postcodes | 55 at 100+136 at 10 to 99 | 191 at 10 to 99 | 191 at 10 to 99 |
| N3 3192 postcodes | 192 at 10 to 99 | 192 at 10 to 99 | 192 at 10 to 99 |
| N3 918 postcodes | 18 at 10 to 99 | 18 at 10 to 99 | 18 at 10 to 99 |
Also counted here: Stansted, at most 2 a day over any of its postcodes; Luton, 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 N3
N12 N2 NW11 NW4 NW7 N10 N20 N11
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.