Planes overhead in SW3
Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth and Westminster, London. All 868 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 SW3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 313 a day; of its 868 postcodes, 170 at 100+, 200 at 10 to 99, 140 on an edge, 358 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 182 a day; of its 868 postcodes, 169 at 100+, 60 at 10 to 99, 141 on an edge, 498 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 868 postcodes, 868 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| SW3 180 postcodes | 2 at 100+78 under 10 | 2 at 100+78 under 10 | 80 under 10 |
| SW3 2140 postcodes | 24 at 10 to 99116 under 10 | 140 under 10 | 140 under 10 |
| SW3 3174 postcodes | 1 at 100+69 at 10 to 99104 under 10 | 1 at 100+173 under 10 | 174 under 10 |
| SW3 4150 postcodes | 26 at 100+84 at 10 to 9940 on an edge | 26 at 100+54 at 10 to 9940 on an edge30 under 10 | 150 under 10 |
| SW3 5186 postcodes | 116 at 100+11 at 10 to 9959 on an edge | 115 at 100+6 at 10 to 9960 on an edge5 under 10 | 186 under 10 |
| SW3 6117 postcodes | 4 at 100+12 at 10 to 9941 on an edge60 under 10 | 4 at 100+41 on an edge72 under 10 | 117 under 10 |
| SW3 921 postcodes | 21 at 100+ | 21 at 100+ | 21 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 SW3
SW1W SW1X SW10 SW1V SW5 SW1E SW11 SW1P
The councils
- Kensington and Chelsea: noise and liveability score
- Lambeth: noise and liveability score
- Westminster: 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.