Planes overhead in SE5
Southwark and Lambeth, London. All 883 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 SE5. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 522 a day; of its 883 postcodes, 883 at 100+
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 288 a day; of its 883 postcodes, 883 at 100+
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 883 postcodes, 883 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE5 0195 postcodes | 195 at 100+ | 195 at 100+ | 195 under 10 |
| SE5 540 postcodes | 40 at 100+ | 40 at 100+ | 40 under 10 |
| SE5 7225 postcodes | 225 at 100+ | 225 at 100+ | 225 under 10 |
| SE5 8231 postcodes | 231 at 100+ | 231 at 100+ | 231 under 10 |
| SE5 9192 postcodes | 192 at 100+ | 192 at 100+ | 192 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 SE5. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (47% of days): up to 1 a day; of its 883 postcodes, 883 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (18% of days): up to 27 a day; of its 883 postcodes, 14 on an edge, 869 under 10
- On a day it flies east (35% of days): up to 61 a day; of its 883 postcodes, 16 on an edge, 867 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SE5 0195 postcodes | 195 under 10 | 3 on an edge192 under 10 | 3 on an edge192 under 10 |
| SE5 540 postcodes | 40 under 10 | 40 under 10 | 40 under 10 |
| SE5 7225 postcodes | 225 under 10 | 225 under 10 | 225 under 10 |
| SE5 8231 postcodes | 231 under 10 | 231 under 10 | 231 under 10 |
| SE5 9192 postcodes | 192 under 10 | 11 on an edge181 under 10 | 13 on an edge179 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.
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 SE5
SE17 SW9 SE15 SE24 SE11 SE22 SE1 SW8
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.