Planes overhead in W4
Hounslow, Ealing and Hammersmith and Fulham, London. All 1,024 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 W4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 310 a day; of its 1,024 postcodes, 97 at 100+, 44 on an edge, 883 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 168 a day; of its 1,024 postcodes, 97 at 100+, 43 on an edge, 884 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 4 a day; of its 1,024 postcodes, 1,024 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W4 1198 postcodes | 198 under 10 | 198 under 10 | 198 under 10 |
| W4 2219 postcodes | 36 at 100+24 on an edge159 under 10 | 36 at 100+23 on an edge160 under 10 | 219 under 10 |
| W4 3250 postcodes | 61 at 100+20 on an edge169 under 10 | 61 at 100+20 on an edge169 under 10 | 250 under 10 |
| W4 4137 postcodes | 137 under 10 | 137 under 10 | 137 under 10 |
| W4 5212 postcodes | 212 under 10 | 212 under 10 | 212 under 10 |
| W4 98 postcodes | 8 under 10 | 8 under 10 | 8 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.
2 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 W4
SW13 W3 W6 W12 SW14 TW8 TW9 W5
The councils
- Hounslow: noise and liveability score
- Ealing: noise and liveability score
- Hammersmith and Fulham: 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.