Planes overhead in W7
Ealing, London. All 510 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 W7. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 2 a day; of its 510 postcodes, 510 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 81 a day; of its 510 postcodes, 321 at 10 to 99, 50 on an edge, 139 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 188 a day; of its 510 postcodes, 286 at 100+, 27 at 10 to 99, 92 on an edge, 105 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W7 1153 postcodes | 153 under 10 | 56 at 10 to 9922 on an edge75 under 10 | 43 at 100+14 at 10 to 9942 on an edge54 under 10 |
| W7 2135 postcodes | 135 under 10 | 123 at 10 to 9912 on an edge | 114 at 100+7 at 10 to 9914 on an edge |
| W7 3215 postcodes | 215 under 10 | 135 at 10 to 9916 on an edge64 under 10 | 122 at 100+6 at 10 to 9936 on an edge51 under 10 |
| W7 97 postcodes | 7 under 10 | 7 at 10 to 99 | 7 at 100+ |
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 W7
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.