Planes overhead in SW1W
Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea and Wandsworth, London. All 343 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 SW1W. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 307 a day; of its 343 postcodes, 2 at 100+, 315 at 10 to 99, 25 on an edge, 1 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 170 a day; of its 343 postcodes, 2 at 100+, 168 at 10 to 99, 25 on an edge, 148 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 343 postcodes, 343 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW1W 057 postcodes | 57 at 10 to 99 | 11 at 10 to 9946 under 10 | 57 under 10 |
| SW1W 8176 postcodes | 151 at 10 to 9925 on an edge | 105 at 10 to 9925 on an edge46 under 10 | 176 under 10 |
| SW1W 9110 postcodes | 2 at 100+107 at 10 to 991 under 10 | 2 at 100+52 at 10 to 9956 under 10 | 110 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 SW1W
SW1X SW1V SW1E SW3 SW1P SW1H W1J SW1A
The councils
- Westminster: noise and liveability score
- Kensington and Chelsea: noise and liveability score
- Wandsworth: 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.