Planes overhead in SE21
Southwark and Lambeth, London. All 296 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 SE21. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 83 a day; of its 296 postcodes, 296 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 50 a day; of its 296 postcodes, 296 at 10 to 99
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 53 a day; of its 296 postcodes, 214 at 10 to 99, 82 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE21 792 postcodes | 92 at 10 to 99 | 92 at 10 to 99 | 32 at 10 to 9960 under 10 |
| SE21 8191 postcodes | 191 at 10 to 99 | 191 at 10 to 99 | 169 at 10 to 9922 under 10 |
| SE21 913 postcodes | 13 at 10 to 99 | 13 at 10 to 99 | 13 at 10 to 99 |
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 SE21. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (47% of days): up to 1 a day; of its 296 postcodes, 296 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (18% of days): up to 28 a day; of its 296 postcodes, 51 at 10 to 99, 48 on an edge, 197 under 10
- On a day it flies east (35% of days): up to 62 a day; of its 296 postcodes, 65 at 10 to 99, 59 on an edge, 172 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE21 792 postcodes | 92 under 10 | 32 at 10 to 9922 on an edge38 under 10 | 43 at 10 to 9927 on an edge22 under 10 |
| SE21 8191 postcodes | 191 under 10 | 19 at 10 to 9926 on an edge146 under 10 | 22 at 10 to 9932 on an edge137 under 10 |
| SE21 913 postcodes | 13 under 10 | 13 under 10 | 13 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 SE21
SE27 SE24 SE22 SE19 SW2 SE26 SE23 SW16
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.