Planes overhead in TW1
Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow, London. All 665 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 TW1. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 317 a day; of its 665 postcodes, 12 at 100+, 17 on an edge, 636 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 190 a day; of its 665 postcodes, 12 at 100+, 207 at 10 to 99, 84 on an edge, 362 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 215 a day; of its 665 postcodes, 170 at 100+, 25 at 10 to 99, 97 on an edge, 373 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TW1 1177 postcodes | 12 at 100+17 on an edge148 under 10 | 12 at 100+31 on an edge134 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 9920 on an edge154 under 10 |
| TW1 2151 postcodes | 151 under 10 | 151 under 10 | 151 under 10 |
| TW1 3122 postcodes | 122 under 10 | 41 at 10 to 9930 on an edge51 under 10 | 15 at 100+16 at 10 to 9949 on an edge42 under 10 |
| TW1 4168 postcodes | 168 under 10 | 165 at 10 to 993 on an edge | 155 at 100+3 at 10 to 9910 on an edge |
| TW1 947 postcodes | 47 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 9920 on an edge26 under 10 | 3 at 10 to 9918 on an edge26 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.
1 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 TW1
TW10 TW2 TW7 TW11 TW9 TW3 TW8 KT2
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.