Planes overhead in W14
Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea, London. All 641 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 W14. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 308 a day; of its 641 postcodes, 44 on an edge, 597 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 167 a day; of its 641 postcodes, 44 on an edge, 597 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 641 postcodes, 641 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W14 0185 postcodes | 185 under 10 | 185 under 10 | 185 under 10 |
| W14 422 postcodes | 22 under 10 | 22 under 10 | 22 under 10 |
| W14 8217 postcodes | 217 under 10 | 217 under 10 | 217 under 10 |
| W14 9217 postcodes | 44 on an edge173 under 10 | 44 on an edge173 under 10 | 217 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.
4 of its postcodes have a position ONS estimates, so their figures may be for a spot a few hundred metres away.
Over 353 of its postcodes, other flying passes too, from airfields, helicopters and airports we cannot check against official counts, so few planes from the airports we count does not mean a quiet sky there.
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 W14
W6 SW5 W11 SW6 SW10 W12 SW13 SW3
The councils
- Hammersmith and Fulham: noise and liveability score
- Kensington and Chelsea: 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.