Planes overhead in TW4
Hounslow and Richmond upon Thames, London. All 428 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 TW4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 319 a day; of its 428 postcodes, 18 at 100+, 110 on an edge, 300 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 414 a day; of its 428 postcodes, 92 at 100+, 170 at 10 to 99, 152 on an edge, 14 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 462 a day; of its 428 postcodes, 209 at 100+, 8 at 10 to 99, 144 on an edge, 67 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| TW4 5165 postcodes | 9 at 100+31 on an edge125 under 10 | 68 at 100+33 at 10 to 9961 on an edge3 under 10 | 73 at 100+67 on an edge25 under 10 |
| TW4 6102 postcodes | 6 at 100+46 on an edge50 under 10 | 21 at 100+35 at 10 to 9941 on an edge5 under 10 | 47 at 100+6 at 10 to 9938 on an edge11 under 10 |
| TW4 7161 postcodes | 3 at 100+33 on an edge125 under 10 | 3 at 100+102 at 10 to 9950 on an edge6 under 10 | 89 at 100+2 at 10 to 9939 on an edge31 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 TW4
TW3 TW5 TW14 TW13 TW2 TW7 UB2 TW6
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.