Planes overhead in CR7
Croydon and Merton, London. All 591 of its postcodes measured (18 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 Croydon, 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 CR7. Across its postcodes, January to August 2026:
On a day it flies west, 56% of days
Up to 133
a day
Of its 591 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 113
- 10 to 99
- 478
On a day it flies both ways, 15% of days
Up to 93
a day
Of its 591 postcodes:
- 10 to 99
- 591
On a day it flies east, 29% of days
Up to 113
a day
Of its 591 postcodes:
- 100 or more
- 44
- 10 to 99
- 515
- on an edge
- 20
- under 10
- 12
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CR7 6123 postcodes | 32 at 100+ | 123 at 10 to 99 | 101 at 10 to 99 |
| CR7 7214 postcodes | 73 at 100+ | 214 at 10 to 99 | 204 at 10 to 99 |
| CR7 8254 postcodes | 8 at 100+ | 254 at 10 to 99 | 44 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. 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 CR7
SE25 SE19 SW16 SE27 SE20 CR0 CR4 SE21
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.