Planes overhead in RM3
Havering, London. All 923 of its postcodes measured, January to August 2026.
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 RM3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (47% of days): up to 38 a day; of its 923 postcodes, 735 at 10 to 99, 56 on an edge, 132 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (18% of days): up to 23 a day; of its 923 postcodes, 712 at 10 to 99, 51 on an edge, 160 under 10
- On a day it flies east (35% of days): up to 15 a day; of its 923 postcodes, 9 at 10 to 99, 914 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM3 0251 postcodes | 134 at 10 to 9929 on an edge88 under 10 | 140 at 10 to 9916 on an edge95 under 10 | 9 at 10 to 99242 under 10 |
| RM3 316 postcodes | 16 at 10 to 99 | 16 at 10 to 99 | 16 under 10 |
| RM3 7197 postcodes | 152 at 10 to 9916 on an edge29 under 10 | 142 at 10 to 9920 on an edge35 under 10 | 197 under 10 |
| RM3 8239 postcodes | 237 at 10 to 992 on an edge | 232 at 10 to 997 on an edge | 239 under 10 |
| RM3 9220 postcodes | 196 at 10 to 999 on an edge15 under 10 | 182 at 10 to 998 on an edge30 under 10 | 220 under 10 |
Also counted here: Heathrow, at most 2 a day over any of its postcodes; Stansted, at most 1 a day over any of its postcodes.
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.
Over 69 of its postcodes, other flying passes too, from airfields, helicopters and airports we cannot check against official counts, so few planes from the airports we count does not mean a quiet sky there.
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 RM3
RM2 RM11 RM1 RM5 RM7 RM14 RM12 RM6
The councils
Where these figures come from
Counted from community flight tracking, checked against the CAA's monthly totals for 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.