Planes overhead in BR3
Bromley, Lewisham and Croydon, London. All 1,089 of its postcodes measured (36 PO boxes and other large-user postcodes left out), January to August 2026.
For Heathrow's expansion consultation, open until 22 December 2026: the planes over Bromley, council by council.
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 BR3. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 169
a day
Of its 1,089 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 785
- 10 to 99
- 304
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 110
a day
Of its 1,089 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 387
- 10 to 99
- 702
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 79
a day
Of its 1,089 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 1,087
- on an edge
- 1
- under 10
- 1
Each sector's bar splits its postcodes by how many planes pass over them a day; the figure above it counts those in the busiest band the sector reaches. The list above gives the whole district's counts.
| Sector | Flying west56% of days | Both ways15% of days | Flying east29% of days |
|---|---|---|---|
| BR3 1241 postcodes | 53 at 100+ | 1 at 100+ | 241 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 3278 postcodes | 278 at 100+ | 215 at 100+ | 276 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 4264 postcodes | 166 at 100+ | 78 at 100+ | 264 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 5182 postcodes | 164 at 100+ | 9 at 100+ | 182 at 10 to 99 |
| BR3 6124 postcodes | 124 at 100+ | 84 at 100+ | 124 at 10 to 99 |
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. PO boxes and other postcodes for organisations that receive a lot of post are left out: they sit at a delivery office or a business, not at homes.
Near BR3
SE20 SE26 SE25 BR1 BR4 SE6 BR2 SE19
The councils
- Bromley: noise and liveability score
- Lewisham: noise and liveability score
- Croydon: 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.