Planes overhead in SW20
Merton and Kingston upon Thames, London. All 570 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 SW20. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 19 a day; of its 570 postcodes, 12 at 10 to 99, 558 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 76 a day; of its 570 postcodes, 428 at 10 to 99, 36 on an edge, 106 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 171 a day; of its 570 postcodes, 301 at 100+, 135 at 10 to 99, 43 on an edge, 91 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW20 0217 postcodes | 217 under 10 | 175 at 10 to 9918 on an edge24 under 10 | 131 at 100+50 at 10 to 9925 on an edge11 under 10 |
| SW20 215 postcodes | 15 under 10 | 15 at 10 to 99 | 15 at 100+ |
| SW20 8201 postcodes | 201 under 10 | 192 at 10 to 999 on an edge | 145 at 100+55 at 10 to 991 on an edge |
| SW20 9137 postcodes | 12 at 10 to 99125 under 10 | 46 at 10 to 999 on an edge82 under 10 | 10 at 100+30 at 10 to 9917 on an edge80 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 SW20
SW19 KT3 SM4 KT4 KT2 SM3 KT5 CR4
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.