Planes overhead in CR4
Merton, Sutton, Lambeth and Croydon, London. All 881 of its postcodes measured (30 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 Merton, 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 CR4. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 96
a day
Of its 881 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 512
- under 10
- 369
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 70
a day
Of its 881 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 881
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 151
a day
Of its 881 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 394
- 10 to 99
- 365
- on an edge
- 41
- under 10
- 81
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR4 1258 postcodes | 229 at 10 to 99 | 258 at 10 to 99 | 54 at 100+ |
| CR4 2182 postcodes | 35 at 10 to 99 | 182 at 10 to 99 | 168 at 100+ |
| CR4 3259 postcodes | 66 at 10 to 99 | 259 at 10 to 99 | 172 at 100+ |
| CR4 4182 postcodes | 182 at 10 to 99 | 182 at 10 to 99 | 60 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.
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. 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 CR4
SW16 SW17 SM4 CR7 SW19 SM5 SW12 SM1
The councils
- Merton: noise and liveability score
- Sutton: noise and liveability score
- Lambeth: 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.