Planes overhead in TW12
Richmond upon Thames, London. 561 of its 562 postcodes measured, the ones in Richmond upon Thames, 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 TW12. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 2 a day; of its 561 postcodes, 561 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 51 a day; of its 561 postcodes, 553 at 10 to 99, 7 on an edge, 1 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 122 a day; of its 561 postcodes, 212 at 100+, 349 at 10 to 99
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TW12 1163 postcodes | 163 under 10 | 163 at 10 to 99 | 101 at 100+62 at 10 to 99 |
| TW12 2215 postcodes | 215 under 10 | 208 at 10 to 996 on an edge1 under 10 | 60 at 100+155 at 10 to 99 |
| TW12 3164 postcodes | 164 under 10 | 163 at 10 to 991 on an edge | 51 at 100+113 at 10 to 99 |
| TW12 919 postcodes | 19 under 10 | 19 at 10 to 99 | 19 at 10 to 99 |
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.
5 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 TW12
TW11 TW2 TW13 TW1 TW4 TW14 TW3 KT1
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.