Planes overhead in TW2
Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow, London. All 558 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 TW2. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 3 a day; of its 558 postcodes, 558 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 144 a day; of its 558 postcodes, 104 at 100+, 371 at 10 to 99, 54 on an edge, 29 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 341 a day; of its 558 postcodes, 451 at 100+, 23 at 10 to 99, 71 on an edge, 13 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TW2 5198 postcodes | 198 under 10 | 1 at 100+195 at 10 to 992 under 10 | 196 at 100+2 under 10 |
| TW2 6181 postcodes | 181 under 10 | 92 at 100+88 at 10 to 991 under 10 | 180 at 100+1 under 10 |
| TW2 7179 postcodes | 179 under 10 | 11 at 100+88 at 10 to 9954 on an edge26 under 10 | 75 at 100+23 at 10 to 9971 on an edge10 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 TW2
TW1 TW3 TW11 TW12 TW4 TW7 TW13 TW10
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.