Planes overhead in SW10
Kensington and Chelsea and Hammersmith and Fulham, London. All 468 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 SW10. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 315 a day; of its 468 postcodes, 293 at 100+, 100 on an edge, 75 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 172 a day; of its 468 postcodes, 293 at 100+, 95 on an edge, 80 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 468 postcodes, 468 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW10 0238 postcodes | 224 at 100+14 on an edge | 224 at 100+14 on an edge | 238 under 10 |
| SW10 114 postcodes | 14 at 100+ | 14 at 100+ | 14 under 10 |
| SW10 9216 postcodes | 55 at 100+86 on an edge75 under 10 | 55 at 100+81 on an edge80 under 10 | 216 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 SW10
SW5 SW3 SW6 SW11 W14 SW1W SW1X SW1V
The councils
- Kensington and Chelsea: noise and liveability score
- Hammersmith and Fulham: noise and liveability score
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.