Planes overhead in SW11
Wandsworth, London. All 1,527 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 SW11. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 615 a day; of its 1,527 postcodes, 1,375 at 100+, 27 at 10 to 99, 70 on an edge, 55 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 348 a day; of its 1,527 postcodes, 1,370 at 100+, 69 on an edge, 88 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 5 a day; of its 1,527 postcodes, 1,527 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW11 1187 postcodes | 179 at 100+8 on an edge | 179 at 100+8 on an edge | 187 under 10 |
| SW11 2224 postcodes | 224 at 100+ | 224 at 100+ | 224 under 10 |
| SW11 3265 postcodes | 264 at 100+1 on an edge | 264 at 100+1 on an edge | 265 under 10 |
| SW11 4195 postcodes | 195 at 100+ | 195 at 100+ | 195 under 10 |
| SW11 5263 postcodes | 263 at 100+ | 263 at 100+ | 263 under 10 |
| SW11 6172 postcodes | 29 at 100+27 at 10 to 9961 on an edge55 under 10 | 24 at 100+60 on an edge88 under 10 | 172 under 10 |
| SW11 784 postcodes | 84 at 100+ | 84 at 100+ | 84 under 10 |
| SW11 888 postcodes | 88 at 100+ | 88 at 100+ | 88 under 10 |
| SW11 949 postcodes | 49 at 100+ | 49 at 100+ | 49 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 SW11
SW4 SW10 SW3 SW8 SW12 SW18 SW1W SW6
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.