Planes overhead in SW1V
Westminster and Wandsworth, London. All 572 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 SW1V. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 307 a day; of its 572 postcodes, 65 at 100+, 384 at 10 to 99, 123 on an edge
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 170 a day; of its 572 postcodes, 65 at 100+, 384 at 10 to 99, 123 on an edge
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 572 postcodes, 572 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW1V 1110 postcodes | 3 at 100+107 at 10 to 99 | 3 at 100+107 at 10 to 99 | 110 under 10 |
| SW1V 2150 postcodes | 2 at 100+145 at 10 to 993 on an edge | 2 at 100+145 at 10 to 993 on an edge | 150 under 10 |
| SW1V 3161 postcodes | 57 at 100+10 at 10 to 9994 on an edge | 57 at 100+10 at 10 to 9994 on an edge | 161 under 10 |
| SW1V 4151 postcodes | 3 at 100+122 at 10 to 9926 on an edge | 3 at 100+122 at 10 to 9926 on an edge | 151 under 10 |
Also counted here: London City, at most 1 a day over any of its postcodes.
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 SW1V
SW1P SW1W SW1E SW1H SW1X SW8 SW1A SW3
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.