Planes overhead in SW18
Wandsworth and Merton, London. All 1,242 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 SW18. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 318 a day; of its 1,242 postcodes, 195 at 100+, 181 on an edge, 866 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 189 a day; of its 1,242 postcodes, 195 at 100+, 57 at 10 to 99, 177 on an edge, 813 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 43 a day; of its 1,242 postcodes, 224 at 10 to 99, 1,018 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW18 1323 postcodes | 182 at 100+78 on an edge63 under 10 | 182 at 100+74 on an edge67 under 10 | 323 under 10 |
| SW18 2198 postcodes | 13 at 100+50 on an edge135 under 10 | 13 at 100+50 on an edge135 under 10 | 198 under 10 |
| SW18 3210 postcodes | 210 under 10 | 26 at 10 to 99184 under 10 | 72 at 10 to 99138 under 10 |
| SW18 4244 postcodes | 28 on an edge216 under 10 | 25 at 10 to 9928 on an edge191 under 10 | 89 at 10 to 99155 under 10 |
| SW18 5220 postcodes | 220 under 10 | 6 at 10 to 99214 under 10 | 63 at 10 to 99157 under 10 |
| SW18 947 postcodes | 25 on an edge22 under 10 | 25 on an edge22 under 10 | 47 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 SW18
SW15 SW11 SW6 SW17 SW12 SW19 SW10 SW4
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.