Planes overhead in W9
Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, Camden and Brent, London. All 578 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 W9. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
- On a day it flies west (56% of days): up to 2 a day; of its 578 postcodes, 578 under 10
- On a day it flies both ways (15% of days): up to 24 a day; of its 578 postcodes, 21 at 10 to 99, 3 on an edge, 554 under 10
- On a day it flies east (29% of days): up to 52 a day; of its 578 postcodes, 128 at 10 to 99, 450 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| W9 1206 postcodes | 206 under 10 | 7 at 10 to 99199 under 10 | 31 at 10 to 99175 under 10 |
| W9 2157 postcodes | 157 under 10 | 157 under 10 | 1 at 10 to 99156 under 10 |
| W9 3185 postcodes | 185 under 10 | 14 at 10 to 993 on an edge168 under 10 | 96 at 10 to 9989 under 10 |
| W9 430 postcodes | 30 under 10 | 30 under 10 | 30 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.
5 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 W9
NW8 W10 NW6 W11 W1G NW3 NW1 W14
The councils
- Westminster: noise and liveability score
- Kensington and Chelsea: noise and liveability score
- Camden: noise and liveability score
- Brent: 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.